


m 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

ChapTKZ^opy right No. 

Shelf.j_VA 4> ' 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





















Betsy Gaskins 




9 










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“That every star was an eye looking down on me wiih piiy. (chapter xxxvin.i 






BETSY GASKINS (Dimi- 


crat), Wife of Jobe Gaskins 
(Republican) ♦ ♦ ♦ Or, Uncle 
Tom s Cabin Up to Dateifcifc^e 

By.... 

W. I. HOOD 


& 


With Illustrations 
from Original Draw- 
ings by C. B. FALLS 


And an Appendix 
Edited by K. L. 
ARMSTRONG 


¥ vA- 

CHICAGO : 

THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

(The Ariel Press.) 

. 323 and 325 Dearborn Street. 







x 


-\ 


(s 


Copyright, 1897, 
By W. I. HOCD, 
All rights reserved. 


Notice. — The illustrations in this work are engraved from original draw 
ings from life, and their reproduction, except by special permission from 
the punishers is prohibited. 


Betsy Gaskins. 



Joke Gaskins. 


PREFACE. 


T 


HIS book is written for a purpose. 
It is founded upon actual occur- 



rences. Betsy and Jobe Gaskins 
are characters well known to you, 


The author claims no inspiration 
or gift of genius. This is only a 
simple statement of facts deserving 


if you will but reflect upon events 
coming under your own observation 
within the past few years. 


the consideration of every intelligent human being. While 
you read these pages, if you will permit your intelligence to 
assert itself over your prejudices, and if finally you will 
do that which the nobler instincts of man prompt you to 
do toward bringing about a better condition of things under 
the government of which you are a part, the author will be 
fully repaid for his labor. He asks you only to keep in 
mind at all times that Jobe Gaskins is your brother ; that 
Betsy Gaskins is your sister. W. I. Hood. 

New Philadelphia , Ohio , April 24, 1897. 


Yll 


££ OD, by giving to man wants and making his 
It recourse to work necessary to supply them, has 
made the right to work the property of every 
man ; and this property is the first, the most sacred, the 
most imprescriptible of all.” — Turgot . 


¥ 


££ 'T'HE right to work is the right to worship. The 
clink of the anvil and the hum of the harvest 
field, the music of the poet and the meditations 
of the inventor are chords in the anthem of creation,” — 
Henry D. Lloyd. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER p AGE 

I. Jobe Sets and Studies i«j 

II. An Argument on the Money Question 22 

III. Jobe Sleeps in the Spare Bed. The Dream .... 27 

IV. “The Comers” 38 

V. Jobe Must Raise $ 2,100 43 

VI. Betty, the Drivin’ Animal . . . . ' 49 

VII. They Drive Old Tom 53 

VIII. Another Letter from Richer 61 

IX. A Few Reasons by Betsy 65 

X. Is there a Woman in the Barn 69 

XI. “In Town” 73 

XII. The Decision 78 

XIII. Jobe Cheers Up 84 

XIV. A New Mortgage 89 

XV. Jobe, Out of Trouble, is Unruly Again 93 

XVI. Jobe is Scared 97 

XVII. Jobe Sleeps in the Barn? 104 

XVIII. The Spittoons in 

XIX. A Big-headed Man 118 

XX. Bonds Sell Well 121 

XXI. The Sermon 124 

XXII. Jobe Working to Raise the Officers’ Salaries . . .128 

XXIII. Plan to Relieve the Rich of an Expense 132 

XXIV. Them Promises 138 

XXV. Jobe Excited Over a Nomination . . 141 

XXVI. The Bloomers 145 


LX 


X 


CONTENTS . 


CHAPTER PAGE 

XXVII. “Them Populists.” 149 

XXVIII. Trouble with Billot 155 

XXIX. “Inforcin the Law agin Billot” . 158 

XXX. Betsy Discusses “Fiat” Money . 166 

XXXI. Jobe Blows a Fish-horn 180 

XXXII. At Court Again 185 

XXXIII. Judgment Rendered 189 

XXXIV. The Little White Rose-bush 195 

XXXV. Jobe Talks of Things that Are Gone 200 

XXXVI. Bill Bowers on the Fence 202 

XXXVII. Betsy Faints. A Vision 207 

XXXVIII. The Parting 21 1 

XXXIX. The Preacher and the Saloonkeeper 216 

XL. Them Rooms. The Director of Charities 228 

XLI. A Sore Hand 235 

XLII. Hattie Moore 244 

XLIII. A Family Reunion 249 

XLIV. After the Woe, then Comes the Law 256 

% 

PART II. 

I. The Impending Revolution 277 

II. The Philosophy of Money 283 

III. A Bird’s-eye View of American Financial History .... 307 

IV. The Eight Money Conspiracies 345 

V. Financial Authorities 352 

VI. Interest and Usury 380 

VII. Debt and Slavery 387 

Vin. The Laws of Property 393 

IX. Direct Legislation 401 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

9 * 

1. “That every star was an eye looking down on me with pity." 

(Frontispiece.) 

2. Character title. 

PAGE 

3. Betsy Gaskins 7 

4. Initial T 11 

5. Jobe Gaskins «. 13 

6. Initial M...,. 15 

7. “We both hankered” 17 

8. “I did git him started to readin ” 19 

9. “That canderdate feller” 20 

10. Tailpiece .... 21 

11. “Me a knittin, him a settin and studyin ” 23 

12. “ ‘Talkin like them blame Populists’” 26 

13. “I waked not until broad daylite ” 28 

14. “ ‘Feedin — feedin, of course,’ says he” 29 

15. “ ‘Do you promis? ’ says I, girlish like” 30 

16. “I sot down, lookin him square in the face” 31 

17. Bill Bowers 32 

18. Ornamental tailpiece 37 

19. “ ‘Ide vote the Dimicrat ticket at the very next township 

election” 39 

20. “They waked me up at the dead hour of midnite” 41 

21. “That very sheet of paper” 45 

22. Congressman Richer 46 

23. “Jobe works and sweats ” 47 

24. Ornamental tailpiece . 48 

25. “Jobe and me both sot down and cried ” 50 

26. “Started for town bright and airly” 54 

27. “Jobe and me counted up how much we had ” 57 

28. “That nite I put another patch on his pants ” 62 

29. “He explained to Mr. Jones” 63 


xi 


xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

30. Ornamental tailpiece 64 

31. Ornamental tailpiece 68 

32. “ Peekin through a crack” 7° 

33. “Jist a layin it off with his hands ” 7 1 

34. “ ‘Mistur Court, Gaskins is here ’ ” 74 

35. “ ‘I ’bject * ” 76 

36. “ ‘I want to prove to you, Mistur Judge’ ” 79 

37. “ ‘This is the law, whether it is justice or not ” 81 

38. “Jobe and me sot there dazed like” 82 

39. Aunt Jane 84 

40. “ He would call him ‘ Billy,’ in honor of the next president ” . . 85 

41. “ Before Jobe could git up, William hit him agin ” 86 

42. Ornamental tailpiece 88 

43. “He would rather pay seven per cent, than six, in order to 

support a sound money basis” 90 

44. “‘Law or no law,’ says I” 91 

45. “ ‘ Payin it in gold to keep your party in power is up-hill 

bizness ’ ” . 92 

46. “‘John Sherman is the greatest financier on airth ’ ” 95 

47. Ornamental tailpiece 96 

48. “ * Now, Betsy, you see what kind of a party you belong to ’ ” . . 98 

49. “ So I wen; to work and cut out the headin ” 100 

50. “ ‘ It is all over, Betsy, ’ says he ” 101 

51. “That nite he slept in the barn ” 103 

52. “ ‘Jobe Gaskins, you make another move!’ ” 105 

53. “ ‘ Are you mad, Betsy? ’ says he ” 108 

54. “Jobe was on his knees in the middle of the bed” 113 

55. “A strait, influential, leadin Republican officeholder” 1 1 5 

56. “ Lots of fellers jist like him ” 1 16 

57. “Jobe he flew up” 119 

58. “It wasent anything onusual for a county officer to make all he 

could ” 120 

59. “ ‘ Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so long as bonds sell 

well?’ ” 121 

60. “ ‘Times are never hard under a gold basis,’ Jobe says” 122 

61. “They whispered and snickered at my straw hat and Jobe’s 

linen coat ” 125' 

62. “ He said the rich all belong to church” 126 

63. Harvesting 129 

64. “I was puttin salve on Jobe’s hands ” 130 

65. The hand that voted “the strait ticket” 131 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii 

66. “Some good men in case of labor trouble” 133 

67. “Some of the little children are pretty ” 136 

68. “ Jobe took what hay he could spare ” 138 

69. “They are kept so busy legislatin ” 139 

70. “A huntin them overhalls ” 142 

71. “I had sot down and went to churnin ” 143 

72. “ The Dimicratic bloomers” 146 

73. “ ‘ Hello, mistur ’ ” 147 

74. “ ‘We ketch em a comin and we ketch em a goin ’ ” 148 

75. “I seen him a comin up the lane ” 15 1 

76. “The fust time for nigh onto twenty years ” 153 

77. “ Billot jist laughed at him 155 

78. “Jobe he got mad and called Billot a Populist ”... 156 

79. Ornamental tailpiece — sunset 157 

80. “ Lawyers a talkin and a laffin ” 159 

81. “ ‘Mistur Moore, how long has it been since you quit advocatin 

the use of good, old-fashioned greenbacks? ’ ” 161 

82. “‘Lawyer — Dimicratic lawyer and polertician ’ ” 164 

83. “ He carried a banner ”... 167 

84. “I got a straw and tickled his nose ” 171 

85. Ornamental tailpiece 179 

86. “It was nearly mornin when I heerd the patriotic sounds of the 

fish-horn” 181 

87. “ He looked kind a pale ” 182 

88. “ ‘ Give us a tune, Jobe ” 183 

89. “ ‘This is not accordin to contract ’ ” 184 

90. “ We hitched in front of Urfer’s big dry goods store ” 186 

91. “ * Ready ’ ” 187 

92. ‘“lama banker, sir, a banker ’ ” 190 

93. “He made sich a fine argament for gold and agin other 

money ” 193 

94. Little Jane 196 

95. “I could nearly see her little dimpled fingers pattin the airth 

around the roots of that little bush ” 197 

96. “‘Mamma, . . . how pritty! ’ ” 198 

97. Ornamental tailpiece 199 

98. “Jobe jist lays and moans ” 200 

99. “I have to chop all the wood ” 201 

100. “ ‘Out with it, Bill ; we are prepared for the wust ’ ” 203 

101. il ‘ He tell you, Betsy. Ive made up my mind to try them 

Populists hereafter ’ ” 205 


XIV 


LIS 7' OF ILLUSTRATIONS . 


102. “ ‘ O, Lord, is there no other way to do ? ’ ” 209 

103. “He drawed me over in his arms and kissed me” 212 

104. “ He was wipin his eyes and blowin his nose as he went towards 

town” 213 

105. “Then sot down and cried and kept a cryin every little bit 

all mornin” 214 

106. “They pulled me away from the winder” 218 

107. “At all the gates around the big fence they had signs stuck up ” 221 

108. “I asked him for something to eat ” 222 

109. “ ‘ Well, old man, sich things hadent ort to be ’ ” 225 

no. “I slipped over and put my face agin the glass ” 229 

hi. “The feller turned around and looked black at me ” 233 

1 12. “ I have to work hard in this place” 236 

113. “One nice little place that I thought I would rent as soon as I 

got my first week’s pay ” 239 

1 1 4. “I worked there three weeks” 241 

1 15. Everything was cold and dark” 242 

1 16. Initial M — Hattie Moore 244 

1 1 7. He teched me on the shoulder ” 247 

1 18. “I got onto a freight train ” 248 

1 19. “Pushing back the hair of the sick woman, leaned over and 

kissed her on the forehead ” 250 

120. “ There lay Mrs. Gaskins ” 252 

121. “There again was the face of that little girl and the face of an 

old man ” 253 

122. “ In the morning there was found a white-haired man ” 254 

123. Tailpiece — the rose-bush on the grave 255 

124. Initial B — the editor 256 

125. “Behold! See that money! ” 265 

216. Tailpiece 271 

127. The world’s oppressor 274 


Betsy Gaskins ( Dimicrat). 


CHAPTER I. 


JOBE SETS AND STUDIES. 



^ — out loud. 


ISTUR EDITURE My name 
k is Betsy Gaskins. I was born 
a Dimicrat. My father was a 
Dimicrat and my mother dident 


dare to be anything else — 


one mind, perlitically, until 


Our family, thus, was of 


Jobe Gaskins begin to come to see me. 

I was a young woman of nineteen summers, as the poit 
would say. 

Jobe he was a Republican and didn’t keer who 
knowed it.” 

My folks opposed Jobe on perlitical grounds. 

Jobe he opposed my folks on the same grounds, but 
hankered arter me, though he knode I was a “ Dimicrat 
dide in the wool. ” 

And I must say I hankered arter Jobe, though I knode 
he was a rank Republican. On that one pint we agreed : 
we both hankered. 

Well, the time come when Jobe and me decided to lay 
aside our perlitical feelins and git married. 

This our folks opposed, but we “slid out” one day, and 
the preacher united the two old parties, as far as Jobe and 


IO BETSY GASKINS , D1MICRA T. 

me was concerned, though I was still a Dimicrat, and 
Jobe he was still a Republican. 

Like the two great perlitical parties at Washington, when 
they want to make a law to suit Wall Street, Jobe and me 
decided to pull together on the question of gittin married. 

We have lived together for nigh onto thirty-five years, 
and durin all that time Jobe has let me be a Dimicrat, and 
Ive let him be a Republican. It has never caused any 
family disturbance nor never will, so long as I be a Dimicrat 
and let Jobe be a Republican. 

We have no children livin. Our little Jane was taken 
from us just arter her seventh birthday. Since then we 
have been left alone together, jist as we was before little 
Jane was born. It is awful lonesome, and as we grow 
older, lonesomer it gits. Sometimes, when I git my work 
all done and have nothin to okepy my mind, I git that 
lonesome, I hardly know what to do. Of late years I read 
a great deal to pass away the time. 

Jobe he hardly ever reads any, not because he cant, — 
Jobe is a good reader, — but it seems the poor man works 
so hard, and has so much to trouble him, that he would jist 
rather set and study than to read. 

When he gits his day’s work done and his feedin, and 
waterin, and choppin of wood, he jist seems to enjoy settin 
and studyin. 

I hardly ever disturb him when he is at it. I jist set and 
read or set and knit, as the case may be, and let Jobe set 
and study. 

I did git him started to readin a couple of years back. I 
had signed for a paper that said a good deal about the 
Alliance and the Grange and sich, and Jobe he read it 
every week, and got so interested that he would talk on the 
things he read about to me and to the neighbors. He got 
nearly over his settin and studyin and seemed in better 





i8 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


spirits so long as he kept a readin of that paper. But one 
day a feller, who was a Republican canderdate for a county 
office, came to our house for dinner (they allers make it 
here about dinner-time, them canderdate fellers do). 

Well, arter dinner, Jobe and that feller went into the 
front room, and the feller gin Jobe a segar (a regular five- 
center, Jobe said), and then they set and smoked, smoked 
and talked, talked about the prospect of their party carryin 
the county, the feller doin all the talkin, until at last Jobe 
told him that he “had been readin some of the principles 
of the People’s party and liked em purty well.” 

The feller reared back, opened his eyes, looked at Jobe 
from head to foot, and then indignant like says, says he to 
Jobe: 

“I am astonished! — astonished to think that Jobe 
Gaskins, one of the most intelligent, most prominent and 
influential Republicans in this township, should read sich 
trash, much less indorse it.” 

And from that day to this Jobe Gaskins, my dear 
husband, has quit his readin and gone back to his settin 
and studyin. 

His party principles was teched. The argament of that 
canderdate feller was unanswerable; it sunk deep into 
Jobe’s boozim, and from the time that that feller thanked 
Jobe for his dinner and boss feed, and invited Jobe and me 
both to come into his office and see him, if he was elected, 
to this writin, I have not had the pleasure of talkin with 
my husband as before. 

That feller robbed me of all the bliss I enjoyed of havin 
my pardner in life to talk with of evenins. And all 1 got 
for bein thus robbed, and for the dinner and hoss feed he et, 
was a invitation to see him okepy the high position of 
county officer — as though that would pay for vittles or 
satisfy an achin void, caused by him a turnin Jobe from 


JOBE SETS AND STUDIES . 





“I did git him started to readin.” 


his readin to his settin and studyin. What good would it 
do me to see him okepyin a county office and drawin of a 
big salary? Yes, drawin of a big salary that poor Jobe has 
to work his lites out of him to help pay. All that there can- 
derdate feller cares for Jobe remainin to be a Republican 
is so that he, and sich fellers like him, will continer to 
vote for him and his likes, and pay the high taxes out of 
which they git their big salaries. What do they care for 
poor old Jobe Gaskins, whether he be a Republican or a 


20 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM1CRAT. 


Dimicrat or a Populist or one of 
them wild Anacrists, if it were not 
that he had a vote and they want 
to keep him in line? What keer 
they what papers he reads, or how 
quick he changes his polerticks, if 
they dident want to git office and 
draw a big salary? 

Say anything to Jobe about this 
and he will flare up and tell you he 
“doesent intend to lose the respect 
of all the leadin men in the county 
by changing his perlitical views.” 

He dont stop to ask hisself, 
“Who is the leadin men?” He 
dont stop to ask hisself how much 
taxes and interest and sicli he con- 
tributes to make them the leadin 
men. Contributes it to support 
them and their families in style 
sich as becomes leadin people. 

Yes, to support their families, I said, so that their wives 
and their girls can wear fine silks and satins, while I must 
git along with a brown caliker or gray cambric dress at 
best. 

Jobe and his likes earns the money by the sweat of their 
brows, and them canderdate fellers and their likes spends 
it in high livin and makin theirselves leadin citizens. And 
then they are astonished to hear of one of their regular 
voters a readin anything that says that sich men as Jobe 
Gaskins and his wife Betsy, if you please, are jist as 
respectable, jist as leadin citizens, as any county officer or 
polertician and their wives. Yes, it astonishes them to 
hear of his readin a paper that says that the farmers have 



JOBE SETS AND STUDIES. 


21 


jist as intelligent, honest and patriotic people among them 
as the leadin citizens have. Now I read sich “trash,” as 
the canderdate feller calls it, and I dont keer who knows 
it, though Ime a Dimicrat. But as it is gittin late and 
milkin time is here, I will close, promisin you more anon, 
a9 it were. 

BETSY GASKINS (Dimicrat), 

Wife of 

Jobe Gaskins (Republican). 



CHAPTER II. 


AN ARGUMENT ON THE MONEY QUESTION. 

T HE anon is here. Last Tuesday evenin, arter I had 
milked and swept and washed up the supper dishes 
and done many other things I have to do day in and 
day out, year in and year out, arter Jobe had done his 
waterin and feedin and choppin of wood, we both found 
ourselves settin before the fire, me a knittin, him a settin 
and studyin. 

Says I to him, all of a suddent, loud and quick like : 
“Jobe, what yer studyin bout?” 

You ort a seen him jump. He was skeert. I spoke so 
suddent and quick. 

He hemmed and hawed a minit or so, got up and turned 
around, sat down, spit in the fire, crossed his legs, and 
says, says he : 

“Well, Betsy, lie tell you what I was a studyin about. 
I was jist a studyin about the mortgage and the interest 
and the fust of Aprile. Aprile, Betsy, is nearly here, and 
where is the money a comin from to pay the interest and 
sicli?” 

I saw he was troubled ; but all I could say was : “Well, 
indeed, Jobe, I dont know.” 

And I dont. 

It seemed, now, as I had Jobe started, waked up as it 
were, he wanted to talk, and I was willin that he should, 
even though it wasent a very pleasant thing to talk about. 

Says he : “Betsy, I sometimes think we will never git 
our farm paid for. It seems to be a gittin harder and 

2 1 


ARGUING THE MONEY QUESTION. 


*3 



“Me a knittin, him a settin and studyin.” 


harder every year to make payments. It has took all we 
raised to meet the interest for the last four years; we haint 
been able to pay anything on the mortgage ; and this spring 
I dont know where we will git the money to pay even the 
interest. It takes twice as much wheat, or anything else, 
nearly, to git the money to pay the interest with as it use 
to, and crops haint any better. Besides, Betsy, if I was to 
sell the farm to-day, it wouldent bring much above the 
$2,100 we owe on it. When I bought it for $3,800, fourteen 
years ago, I thought it cheap enough, and it was if times 
hadent got so hard and things we raise so cheap. Jist to 
think, we have paid $1,700 on the first cost, and $2,100 in 
interest besides, and if we had to sell it to pay the mort- 
gage we would not have a dollar left. Congressman Richer 
could foreclose at any time ; he could have done so for the 
last three years — ever since I failed to make the payments 
on the mortgage.” 

“Well, Jobe,” says I, “it is bad enough, to say the 
least. ” 


2 4 


BETSY GASKINS , DJ MICE AT. 


“Yes, Betsy,” says he, “if we cant meet the interest, 
Banker Jones tells me, we will be sold out.” 

I was silent. 

Jobe continered : “I tell you, Betsy, these times, six 
per cent, interest is hard to pay. It seems that, no matter 
how cheap a farmer has to sell what he raises, interest 
dont get any cheaper.” 

Thinks I, “Now is my time to speak.” 

u Jobe,” says I, slow and deliberate, lookin him square 
in the eyes, “Jobe Gaskins, haint you a American citizen? 
Haint you jist as good a citizen as a banker? Haint you 
jist as honest? Haint you jist as hard-workin? Haint 
you got as much rights in these here United States?” 

Jobe was silent, but lookin straight at me, starin. 

Continerin, says I : “I was a readin in my paper, the 
other day, that the banker borrowed money from this here 
government for one per cent. The very money he loans 
you and your likes at six and seven and eight per cent, he 
gits from this here government for one per cent. You, 
Jobe Gaskins, ort to have jist as good right to borrow 
money from this here government of yourn and his as he 
has, if you give good security and will pay it back, and God 
knows you would, as honest as you are. Jist to think, Jobe, 
if you could have borrowed the money from the govern- 
ment to have paid Congressman Richer for his farm four- 
teen years ago, when we bought it, at only one per cent, 
interest, and only paid back to the government, at the 
post-office, or some other place appointed, the same as you 
have paid Congressman Richer in payments and interest, 
we to-day would have our farm nearly paid for and be out 
of debt, and you wouldent be a settin and studyin about 
the mortgage and interest and the fust of Aprile. Or even 
if you could borrow the money to-day from the government 
at two per cent., you could git the $2,100, pay it off, and 


ARGUING THE MONEY QUESTION. 


2 5 


next year only have to raise $42 interest instead of $126. 
Dont you see it would be easier for you to pay? And you 
could pay a little on the mortgage every year, as hard as 
times are?” 

While I was a sayin all this Jobe was a lookin at me, 
a starin, turnin on his seat, spittin in the fire, crossin fust 
one leg, then another, waitin for me to stop. I seen he 
was teched ; so, when I had done, I sot back in my cheer, 
and begin to knit, and waited for what was a comin. He 
begun slowly, but warmed up as he proceeded. Says he : 

‘‘Betsy, I have lived with you for nigh onto thirty-five 
years; we have allers lived in peace, though you was a 
Dimicrat and I was a Republican ; we have had our 
sorrows and our hardships, and now, arter all these years 
of peace, am I to pass the last days of my life with a 
pardner who is allers talkin like them blamed Populists? 
You know, Betsy Gaskins, that I am a Republican and 
expect to die one. I believe that all the laws made by the 
Republicans are just laws. If they made laws to lend the 
banker money at one per cent, it must stand, and I will try 
to bear my burden, though I have to pay six per cent, 
interest or more, if need be, for the same money. Betsy, 
you must stop readin them papers. I never look into one ; 
they jist start a feller to thinkin, and the fust thing he 
knows he dont believe a thing he has been a believin all 
his life. It ruins a feller’s perlitical principles. If a feller 
is a Republican, he should be one and never read anything 
to cause him to think. Them Populists, Betsy, is jist 
made up of a lot of storekeepers and farmers, and men 
who work in shops and mills and coal-banks and sich 
places. They dont know anything about makin laws, or 
money or bizness. Our law-makers, Betsy, should be 
lawyers and bankers and rich business men and sich.” 

Well, I jist saw it was no use argyin with him, but I 


26 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


thought I would have the last word, as I allers do, and 
says I : 

“Well, Jobe Gaskins, if you ignorant farmers haint fit 
to make the laws to fix the taxes you pay ; if you farmers 
haint fit to make the laws to govern yourselves ; if you 
farmers haint fit to transact the bizness in which you 



“ ‘Talkin like them blame Populists’.” 


should be most interested, I think you ort to begin to 
prepare yourselves until you are fit, by readin what hasent 
been done for you that ort to have been done, and what 
has been done agin you that hadent ort to been done.” 

At that, bein ready, I skipped into the bed-room and in 
a twinkle was in bed with the kivers drawed up over my 
head. If Jobe said any more I heard it not. In a few 
minits I was asleep, where I must soon be agin. 



CHAPTER III. 


JOBE SLEEPS IN THE SPARE BED. THE DREAM. 

T HAT nite arter I had got into bed and kivered up 
my head, I went to sleep and waked not until broad 
daylite. Imagine my surprise, when I waked, to 
find that durin all that long nite I had been the sole oke- 
pant of that bed. The piller on which Jobe, my dear 
husband, had slept for over thirty-four years had not been 
teched that nite, and, for the fust time in thirty-five years 
next corn-huskin, Betsy Gaskins had slept alone. I felt 
skeert. I felt as though some awful calamity had or would 
occur to me. 

With a heavy heart I ariz and put on my skirts, all the 
time feelin as if I was about to choke. Everything was 
silent and still about the house. Could it be possible that 
my dear Jobe had dide or been kidnapped, or what? I 
hurried into the room — no Jobe there. I went into the 
kitchen — no Jobe there. I hastened to the spare bed- 
room. The door was closed. I stopped. I rubbed my 
hands together, studyin what to do, all a trimblin. Cer- 
tainly the dead and lifeless corpse of my dear husband 
was in there cold in death, drivin to it of course by the 
cruel words of his lovin wife. There I stood stock still, 
not knowin what to do. I must have stood there some 
three or four minits. until I came to myself. All at onct 
I says, says I, out loud: “Betsy Gaskins, what are you 
about? Haint you allers been looked upon as a woman of 
good jedgement and feerless in the face of disaster?” At 
that I marched up to the door and flung it open. 

27 


28 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 



Now what do you suppose I found? Jobe was not 
there, but that spare bed had been okepied that very nite. 
Then it was that I realized that the two old parties, as it 
were, had been divided — divided for one nite on the money 
question. Yes, Jobe Gaskins and his wife Betsy, a Dimi- 
crat and Republican, had slept beneath the same roof and 
in seperate beds. 

While I stood there, contemplatin what next to do and 
where Jobe might be, I heered him come onto the back 
porch. I met him with a smile as he come into the 
kitchen. 

Says I : “Why, Jobe, where have you been?” 

“Feedin — feedin, of course,” says he; “ where do you 
suppose Ive been?” lookin at the floor and walkin 
apast me. 

Arter reflection thinks I, “ ’Tis best to say nothin to him 
about the split in the two old parties until a future date.” 
So I jist went about it and prepared the mornin meal, 
thinkin all the time of a dream I had that nite, some time 
between bed-time and daylite, while I lay there all alone, 
while the pardner of my life okepied the spare bed. 

Well, while Jobe was partakin of his mornin repast, I 




30 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


saw all the time that he wanted 
to say something. I never said a 
word durin the whole meal, 
neither did Jobe. We jist set 
and eat — eat in silence. 

When Jobe was done he pushed 
back and tipped his cheer agin 
the wall. I knode he was a goin 
to speak. He cleared his throat 
like, and says, says he : 

“Betsy, I dont want you to 
say any more to me about what 
you read in the newspapers. 1 
am willin to listen to anything else 
under the sun, but dont let me 
hear any more about them Popu- 
list ideas. I want to talk sense 
to you, and you to talk sense to 
me. Now what I want to know, 

T Betsy, is, how are we to raise the 
“ ‘Do you promis?* says I, , . , . 

girlish like.” money to pay the interest by the 

fust of Aprile?” 

Says I: “Land a goodness, Jobe, how do I know? 
Goodness knows I am willin to do all I kin to help you 
raise it. I had a dream last nite ; if that dream was true 
I might tell you how to raise it.” 

I stopped. 

“Well,” says he, arter studyin a minit, “what was your 
dream?” 

Lookin at him kind a girlish like, says I : 

“Jobe, I wont tell you what it was unless you make me 
two promises.” 

Jobe actually smiled. Says he : 

“ Go ahead ; what are your promises?” 



JOBE SLEEPS IN THE SPATE BED . 


3t 



“I sot down, . . . lookin him square in the face.” 


“Well,” says I, smilin, “the fust promis is that you 
sleep in the same bed I do to-nite.” 

At that I laffed out loud. Jobe he did, too. Then 
says I : 

“The second promis is that you will listen without 
commentin until I tell it all.” 

Jobe he studied. 

“Do you promis?” says I, girlish like. 

“Yes, I promis,” says he; “go ahead.” 

“You promis to sleep in the same bed you have for 
these nigh onto thirty-five years?” 

“Yes, yes,” says he, lookin half guilty. 

“And you will listen?” says I. 

“Yes, yes, lie listen,” says he. 

So, arter clearin away the dishes and scrapin off the 
crumbs for the chickens, and puttin some dish water to 
bile, I sot down on the other side of the table from Jobe, 
lookin him square in the face. Says I : 

“Well, Jobe, we was talkin of the mortgage and the 
interest last nite when I went to bed, and I suppose that 
had something to do with me havin the dream, and for 
that reason I dont suppose there is anything in the dream.” 

“Spose not,” says he, lookin oneasy like. 



32 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR A T. 


44 Well, Jobe,” says I, 44 1 dreamed 
that Congressman Richer had de- 
manded his money, and you had to 
raise the whole amount of the mort- 
gage or lose our home. I thought you 
and me went down to town and went 
to every bank to try to borrow the 
money with which to pay the mort- 
gage. I thought every place we went 
we was told that they was not makin 
any loans now, that there was a 
money panic and they had decided 
not to make any more loans for some 
time. I thought we could see great 
piles of money inside the wire fence 
that seperated us from the bankers, 
you know.” At this he nodded. 
44 And I thought you said, jist as 
plain as I ever heard you say anything : 

44 4 Why, haint you got plenty of money?’ 

44 4 Yes, yes, we have plenty of money, but we are not 
loaning any at this time,’ * says each banker, jist as though 
they had all agreed to say the same thing. 

44 So I thought we traveled and traveled and coaxed and 
coaxed, and we couldent git a cent, as it were. 

44 Finally I thought we was agoin along the street, both 
feelin sad and discouraged, when jist in front of Spring 
Bros. & Holsworth’s big dry goods store who should we 
meet but Bill Bowers of Sandyville. 

*In July and August, 1893, during one of the severest money panics ever 
experienced in the United States, many of the banks not only refused to 
lend money on choice security or to discount commercial paper, but in 
many instances would not permit persons to draw out the money they had 
deposited with them. Business was paralyzed. Thousands of persons 
were ruined, losing the accumulations of a lifetime by being unable to raise 
money as usual to meet obligations falling due. P'actories were closed for 



•S 

Bill Bowers. 


JOBE SLEEPS EV THE SPATE BED. 


33 


“ ‘Hello, Gaskins,’ says he. 

“ That was the fust we had seen of him. Our minds was 
so troubled. 

“We stopped, and arter inquirin about the folks, and 
the stock, and the meetin that is goin on at Center Valley 
school-house, he asked : 

“ ‘What are you doin in town?’ 

“ And I thought you up and told him about havin to pay 
the mortgage ; and of our havin been to every bank ; and 
of our havin been told the same tale by each banker, and 
then you said, ‘ I guess, Bill, we will have to lose our 
farm.’ 

“When he up and says, says he : 

“ ‘Why, Gaskins, haint you heerd it?’ 

“ ‘ Heerd what?’ says you. 

“‘Why, haint you heerd of the new law?’ says he. 

‘ Why, Congress passed the law yisterday, I was jist over 
to the court-house and they showed me the telegram.’ 

“ ‘Why, what law do you mean, Bill?’ says you. 

“Then you and Bill sot down on a box and I leaned 
agin the house, and says Bill : 

“ ‘Why, yisterday, Jobe, they passed a law in Congress 
authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to, at once, have 
engraved and printed full legal-tender paper money to the 
amount of ten dollars per capita of the population of the 
United States, and that money is to be set apart only to be 
loaned to counties on county bonds, and the counties are 
to git it at one per cent, interest. Then the county treas- 

lack of funds to pay employes, and thousands of American citizens were 
thrown out of employment. The consequent suffering among the poorer 
classes throughout the nation was indescribable. And during all this time 
the banks of the country held the money of the people and refused to pay 
it out even to those to whom it belonged. Hence the question : Can not 
a better system of financiering be devised than our present banking system? 
Would it not be better to permit the people to deposit their money with our 
county treasurers? 


34 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


urers are to lend the money only on first mortgage real 
estate security to the farmers and business men and 
mechanics, at only two per cent, interest, and when the 
man that borrows it pays it back, or any part of it, the 
amount of his payments shall be credited on his mortgage, 
and as fast as it accumulates in the county treasurer’s 
office he shall forward it to Washington and git it credited 
on the county bond they hold. The one per cent, the 
government gits is to pay for makin the money and keepin 
the books at Washington. The other one per cent, that 
the borrowers pay is to go toward payin the county treas- 
urer’s salary and clerk hire. This money, Jobe, is as good 
as gold, because the government agrees to take it for 
postage stamps and internal revenue and duties on 
imports and sich. All you have to do, Jobe, is to go over 
there to that grand old court-house, give your mortgage to 
the people of the county, and git your money ; and after 
this you will only have to pay two per cent, interest instead 
of six or seven, and you kin save your farm.’ 

“Well, Jobe, I thought you and me and Bill Bowers all 
went over there, and sure enough, what Bill told us was 
true. The county treasurer told us that he would put our 
application on file, and as soon as they could git the money 
out and here, possibly in thirty days, we could come in and 
git ninety per cent, of the value of our farm if we needed 
that much. 

“And while we was standin there a talkin to Treasurer 
Hochstetter, I heard George Welty explainin to Ed. Walters 
4 how nice it was for a person to be able to give a mortgage 
to the people of the county for money to pay for a home, 
and then the county goin that person’s security and gittin 
the money from all the people of the United States,’ and 
explainin that there would always be jist enough money to 
do bizness on and no more, since the county would only 


JOBE SLEEPS IN THE SPARE BED. 


35 


-borrow from the government when some citizen of the 
county had use for the money and was willin to give good 
security and pay two per cent, for it. And, Jobe, I thought 
you looked happier than you have for ten years.” 

“Well, Bet ” 

“Hold on, Jobe,” says I. “Well, I thought you and 
me and Bill Bowers started up street, and when we were 
passin Jones’s bank he called us in. 

“Says he: ‘Mr. Gaskins, I guess we can accommodate 
you with that little matter you was speakin about this 
morn ” 

“ ‘I dont want it now,’ says you. 

“ ‘No,’ says I. 

“ ‘Ide think not,’ says Bill Bowers. 

“ ‘Well, but hold — hold on,’ says Jones. ‘I — I — we — 
we will let you have that amount at four per cent.’ 

“ ‘Oh, no,’ says you. 

“ ‘Well, how will three strike you?’ says Jones. 

“ ‘I dont want it at all,’ says you. 

“ ‘Come on/ says I, and we went on up street. When 
we passed the First National Bank, out comes one of 
the clerks a hollerin, ‘Mr. Gaskins! Mr. Gaskins!’ We 
stopped. He came a runnin up and says : ‘ Come in now 

and our people will accommodate you,’ takin hold of your 
arm and startin back with you. I thought I jist took a 
hold of your other arm and says, says I : ‘Jobe Gaskins, 
where yer goin? We dont want any bank money in sich a 
panic as this. So come on and lets git out of this panic.’ 

“Well, every last bank we had been to that mornin was 
a peckin, and a hollerin, and a beckenin to us that evenin, 
until we like to a never got out of town and away from 
them. They jist seemed bound to lend you that money 
whether you wanted it or not. Something had created a 
panic among them — a panic to git to lend you money. 


36 BETSY GASKINS , D I MIC RAT. 

Maybe they had heard of the new law. I dont know.” 

Durin most of the tellin of my dream Jobe he was leanin 
his face in his hands, his elbows on the table, eyes wide 
open, listenin as he never did before. 

When I finished, says he : 

“ Betsy, that will save us. What a grand country this 
is!” And he got up and walked across the floor. Comin 
back and lookin, anxious like, at me, says he: 4 ‘Betsy, 
which party did Bill say passed that law — the Dimicrats or 
the Republicans? It is grand! grand! It will save us.” 
As he spoke he looked full of joy and happiness. 
Answerin, says I : 

“ I think I heard John Denison say it was the Popul ” 

I never got to finish that word. His fist came down on 
the table like a thousand of bricks. He jumped back into 
the middle of the floor, cracked his fists together, stamped 
his foot, and says in aloud voice: “I wont! I wont! I 
wont do it. It can go fust. Bill Bowers is a dum fool. 
I wont! I wont!” 

Says I: “Why, Jobe, what on airth is the matter? 
What ails you? What yer talkin about anyhow? You 
wont do what?” 

Answerin, says he, bringin his fists together agin : 

“ I wont borrow any money from any scheme them tarnal 
Populists has made into a law. lie — lie pay ten per cent, 
interest fust. lie not lend my approval to any law they 
have made.” 

“Why, sakes alive, Jobe,” says I, “they haint made 
any law. That was jist a dream I had. What ails you, 
anyhow?” 

At that he stepped back a step or two, lookin at me 
vicious like. Movin his head up and down in short jerks, 
says he : 

“Betsy, you must stop it. Stop it at once. Its got you 


JOBE SLEEPS IN THE SPATE BED. 37 

crazy — so crazy you are dreamin about it. You must stop 
that readin or lie have you sent to a lunatic asylum.” 

He went out at the door then, but just as he got out, in 
time for him to hear it, I hollered : 

“ Its you and your likes that ort to be sent to a lunatic 
asylum for not seein a thing that you have to turn your 
back on to keep from seein.” 

This ended the second “discussion of the financial situa- 
tion,” as they say down at Washington. The two old 
parties — Jobe and me — are still divided ; but I have one 
promis he has yet to fulfill. 



CHAPTER IV. 


“THE COMERS.” 

B ILL BOWERS has got me into trouble. The Thurs- 
day arter I had my dream about the money bizness, 
who should ride up to our gate and hitch but Bill 
Bowers? I had not seen him for nigh onto two years, 
except in that dream, until he rid up to that gate post. 

No sooner did I lay eyes on him than I thought of our 
meetin him that day in town, right there by Spring 
Brothers’ big store, and of his tellin us of the money plan, 
and of his goin with us to the county treasurer, and of us 
a learnin from the county treasurer that in a few days he 
would become the people’s banker and would lend money 
to the people on good security. While he was gittin off 
and hitchin, I remembered of his walkin with us up apast 
all the banks ; I remembered of them refusin to lend us 
any money in the mornin ; of them a peckin and a beckenin, 
a hollerin and a runnin arter us, wantin to lend us their 
money, in the evenin, arter we, and they too, had heerd of 
the new law Congress had made the day before — a law that 
turned a panic where we had to beg for money, and not git 
it, to a panic where they begged to lend us money and we 
wouldent borrow it. 

Yes, sir, that there dream all come back to me as plain 
as day, Bill Bowers and all, jist as soon as I laid eyes 
on him. 

So it was no more than nateral for me to tell him about it. 
Jobe not bein at home, I had to do the entertainin. As 
soon as he got in and got settled, I says : 

38 


“ THE COMERS .” 


39 


“ Bill Bowers, I am glad 
to see you. I must tell 
you my dream. Bring 
your cheer up to the fire.” 

Then I jist up and told 
him that whole dream, and 
he swollered every word 
of it without chawin, as it 
were. 

When I had finished he 
says, says he : 

“ Betsy Gaskins, if that 
ere dream was only enact- 
ed into a law, what a 
blessin it would be to the 
creatures of this world! 
Bets}', though I am one of 
the stanchest Republicans in Sandyville, if this here Dimi- 
cratic Congress would make sich a law, Ide vote the 
Dimicrat ticket at the very next township election. 
Betsy, how in the world did you come to dream sich a 
dream ?” 

Now, how do I know how I come to dream any particular 
dream? I went to bed and went to sleep, jist as I had 
done for nigh onto thirty-five years, exceptin, of course, 
Jobe slept in the spare bed and me alone. But would I 
tell Bill Bowers of that split in the two old parties, as it 
were, and have him tell all over creation that Jobe Gaskins 
and his wife Betsy had quit sleepin together? No. Ide 
die fust. So I jist says : 

4 ‘Well, Bill, indeed I dont knowhow I come to dream it.” 

And I dont. 

Well, my tellin of Bill Bowers that ere dream is causin 
me no ends of trouble. Ime jist worried and hounded 



“‘Ide vote the Dimicrat ticket at the 
very next township election.’ ” 


4 o 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


about by this and that one, to have me tell em about that 
dream, until I hardly git time to breathe. 

Bill Bowers he jist went, and from the time he left our 
house until now he has been a tellin of my dream to ever) 7 
one he meets. And it seems he is a keepin a tellin it, the 
way people has been flockin here and keep a flockin. Jake 
Cribbs, and Joe Born, and Curt Hill, and Bill Loyd, and 
Jim Rankin and Mag his wife, and the Minnings, and the 
Bateses, and the Hances, and goodness only knows who 
all has been here to know more about my dream! And 
how I come to have it; and what Ime a goin to do about it ; 
and why I dont git it published ; and why I dont send it 
to Congress ; and why I dont do this and do that! 

And some of em say they have it goin that the law is 
made — that Bill Bowers told Tom Osborne, and Tom 
Osborne told Doc Hendershot, and Doc Hendershot told 
Lucy Joss, and Lucy Joss told somebody else, that Betsy 
Gaskins said there was sich a law passed, and they come 
from fur and near to know what paper I read it in? or 
how I heerd it? or if Ime certain I had it? &c. &c., and a 
thousand and one other things, until Ime sick and tired of it. 

Last night they even waked me up at the dead hour of 
midnite — Ellic Shank and Lew Zimmerman and Dan 
Hochstetter did — to hear me tell em more about it. And 
Jobe he’s nearly destracted. The poor man is jist run as 
hard as I be, though he had nothin to do with dreamin of 
that dream, onless his not a sleepin with me that nite 
caused it. 

What to do to git rid of all this questionin and answerin, 
this comin and a goin, I dont know. If they would go to 
readin, and thinkin, and a reasonin with themselves, they 
might have some dreams of their own — yes, have dreams 
with their eyes open. If these very people, men and 
women, who are worryin the life out of me, would go to 





“They waked me up at the dead hour of midnitf..” 


42 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


readin of papers whose mouths haint shut by the public 
printin they git or hope to git ; if they would go to readin 
papers that haint got some polertician’s hand around their 
throat — I say if these very people would read papers whose 
editures haint afraid to speak the truth when they see it ; 
haint afraid to condem the wrong wherever they find it — I 
say, if they would read sich papers and sich books, they 
would dream dreams they never dreamed of dreamin 
before. I think they would begin to see that the Dimicrat 
pays the same rate of tax as the Republican pays, and 
vicey versy. 

They would see that, no matter what is the polerticks of 
the office-holder, the voter has to pay the taxes out of 
which the feller draws a salary. 

They would see that by reducin or increasin salaries 
their taxes are made high or low, as the case may be. 

When they begin to see these things, I think they will 
begin to see that so far as they are concerned it dont make 
any difference to them which ticket they vote ; that the 
feller most interested in their vote is the canderdate feller 
who is wantin to draw the salary. 

Does a feller have to go to sleep to dream that holdin 
office is the best payin bizness in the country? 

Does a feller have to go to sleep to dream that the 
salaries of all officeholders are too high, and that the 
foreigner dont pay the taxes out of which these salaries 
are paid? 

Does a feller have to go to sleep to dream that all public 
expense ort to be cut down and kept cut down? 

These are some of the dreams that the dreamless people 
would dream if they would go to readin of papers and 
books that Jobe and his likes would have me sent to the 
lunatic asylum for readin. (Here is another comer. I must 
quit.) 


CHAPTER V. 


JOBE MUST RAISE $ 2,100 . 

M Y heart is heavy. Poor Jobe is nearly destracted. 

Our home is in jeopardy. Congressman Richer 
must have his money. He must have it by Aprile 
fust. Poor feller, he too is in bad straits ; his gittin 
defeated last fall upset his calkerlations. 

And jist to think, Jobe voted agin him ; helped to defeat 
him, as it were. But Mistur Richer holds no spite agin 
Jobe for that. He was a Dimicrat, and he knew Jobe was 
a strait Republican. 

Such things will happen to any feller runnin for office ; 
somebody has to be defeated. They all cant hold office. 
I wish lie had been elected agin, and so does Jobe. Jobe 
wishes it, though he is a Republican and voted agin him. 

Poor Mistur Richer, he is in desperate strates. He is 
hard up. If he had been elected agin he wouldent a been 
that way. 

It makes my head swim to think about what his dis- 
appointments are and may be. 

Here is his letter to Jobe. It is so kind and nice. And 
jist to think of what a big man it is from, and the place. 
Jobe likes to read the headin : 

House of Representatives, 

Washington, D. C., Feb. 23, 1895. 

J. Gaskins, Esq.: 

Dear Sir and Friend — Owing to circumstances over 
which I now have no control, I am compelled to call on 
you to pay the $2,100 with interest due me on mortgage, 
not later than April 1st of the current year. 

43 


44 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT 


No doubt, Mr. Gaskins, this will take you unawares, and 
most probably unprepared. Were it not for the political 
reverses with which I met last fall, I would not be com- 
pelled to do what, I assure you, is a very unpleasant thing 
to me, i. e., call on you for this money at this time. 

No doubt you will think that on the $5,000 a year salary 
I have drawn for two years, now nearly past, and the other 
sources of revenue that have become the perquisites 
belonging to a Congressman’s office, I ought to be able to 
get along without, in this way, inconveniencing you. 

Had I been re-elected last fall 1 would have been in 
such circumstances. But when I call your attention to the 
fact that the nomination two years ago cost me $2,500 spot 
cash ; that I have only been able to dispose of a very few 
post-offices at anything like paying prices; that, it being 
my first term, my services were not sought to any paying 
extent by those seeking “ profitable ” legislation, as well 
as the high rents and expenses in maintaining the dignity 
of myself and family, I am satisfied you will realize not 
only my great disappointment, but the loss, financially, I 
suffer as a consequence of my late defeat. 

True, I have bought something like $20,000 worth of 
real estate in this city, but I still owe nearly $5,000 on it. 
I bought it expecting to be re-elected ; so you will see the 
necessity of my calling in the money I now have out- 
standing in order to meet the deferred payments on my 
real estate venture. 

I may be able to dispose of one and possibly two more 
post-offices between now and March 4th, but as they are 
small offices it is not likely that I will get more than $300 
to $500 each for them, and as the friends of my successor 
are using every effort to postpone these appointments 
until after March 4th, you can see that I may even lose 
the profit on these appointments, since, as you are aware, 
all such revenue goes to my successor after that date. 

The fact is, friend Gaskins, I have not been able to 
clear over $15,000 in the two years I have served as your 
Congressman, while some of the older members (those 
better known and more sought for by the liberal rich who 
come here to secure legislation favorable to their interests) 
make as high as a million a year. 


JOBE MUST RAISE THE MONEY. 45 

With kind regards to Betsy, and hoping you will not 
put me to the necessity of foreclosing the mortgage I hold 
against you, I am Yours truly, 

D. M. J. Richer, M. C. 

Now, jist to think, that letter, that very sheet of paper, 
come right from the great capital of these here United 
States ; right from where all the great and leadin men of 



the country sit and make laws, and sell post-offices and sich 
— yes, this very sheet of paper has been writ on, handled 
and folded by a live and livin Congressman. The beauti- 
ful red tongue of a real Congressman licked that invelope, 
and his fingers sealed it up and put it in that great marble 
post-office there ; then it traveled across them high 


4 6 


BETSY GASKINS, D I MICE AT. 



mountains, over 
the big rivers 
and through the 
great cities to 
Jobe Gaskins, a 
common, every- 


day farmer, of 
l Tuskaroras 


County, Ohio. 
Ip Yes, that 
letter was writ 


Congressman Richer. 


by fingers that 
have fingered 
$5,000 salary 


money in only twelve months, and the Lord only knows 
how much post-office money — but lots — as it must a been, 
though they dident sell high enough to suit him. 

Five thousand dollars from Noo Years to Noo Years! 
More than Jobe Gaskins has cleared since he become the 
lawful husband of his dear wife Betsy! 

And jist to think, all them $5,000 paid by taxes. Paid 
by Jobe and his likes. 

Poor Mr. Richer, how he must pant and sweat to airn 
that much money in twelve months — as much as Jobe could 
airn in twenty years if he could airn $250 every year. Jist 
to think how Jobe works and sweats, and walks stiff and 
plans and studies, and don’t airn $250 a year. 

I expect there wasent a dry thread in all of Mr. Richer’s 
clothes. 

I expect that even his pants was wet through every day 
of that whole year. 

What big washins poor Mrs. Richer must a had. 

Jobe he jist couldent stand sich sweatin, day in and day 
out. 


JOBE MUST RAISE THE MONEY. 


47 

It would take a whole barrel of soft soap to keep his 
clothes clean. 

Five thousand dollars! 

Five thousand dollars a year!! 

Four hundred and sixteen dollars a month!!! 

Seventeen dollars a day for every workin day in the 
year! 

Seventeen dollars! 

Enough to buy me twenty-four caliker dresses a day! 



One every hour!! 

Seven thousand four hundred and eighty-eight caliker 
dresses in a year!!! 

How in the world could I git them all made? 

I spect poor Mrs. Richer has to so day and nite. 

And jist to think, all of them 7,488 dresses for one man’s 
wife! 

All paid for by taxes. 

Now I wonder, if them Congressmen dident have to 
work so hard, and could get along on less pay — I wonder 


4 8 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


if the tax-payer’s wife wouldent have a dress or two more, 
even if Mrs. Richer and her likes had to get along on a 
dress or two less? The Lord knows she could spare them 
out of all them 7,488 dresses. 

Well, the idea okepyin my mind most now is : “ Where 
can Jobe git the money to pay all that $ 2,100 , when he 
haint got even one post-office to sell?” 



CHAPTER VI. 


BETTY, THE DRIVIN ANIMAL. 

E VER since we got that letter from Congressman 
Richer, demandin his $ 2,100 by the fust of Aprile, 
Jobe has been scourin the country fur and near 
tryin to borrow the money, and, poor man, he is worse 
destracted than ever. Things haint like they use to be. 
Nobody seems to have any money to lend. He finds lots 
of people a huntin money, but nobody a findin any. He 
has been to Sandyville, and Mineral Pint, and Zoar, and 
way up in Stark County as fur as New Berlin, and nary the 
man has he found with $ 2,100 to lend on good security. 
What to do Jobe dont know, nor neither do I. 

Jobe says he will write to Mr. Richer and git him to wait 
a little longer, until times pick up a little. 

“ But,” says I, “ Jobe, when will times pick up?” 

And the poor man, lookin at me sadder than he has 
since he become my dear husband, says, says he : 

“ Betsy, the Lord only knows — I dont.” 

And I think Jobe is right. 

Well, we — that is Jobe and me, the two old parties — 
have decided that the interest will have to be paid whether 
the $ 2,100 is or not. So Jobe has been a rakin and a 
scrapin to raise what he could, and I have been a rakin 
and a scrapin to raise what I could. 

We sold Betty the other day, the only drivin animal we 
had ; sold her for only $42. 

As the stranger went a leadin her away Jobe and me 
both sot down and cried. We both loved Betty. We 

49 


50 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 


bad raised her from a colt. She was a purty colt, and so 
lovin like, Jobe he named her for me. We had intended 
to always keep her, and since our little Jane was taken 
from us we jist loved Betty as if she was a child. And, 
poor Betty, I know she loved us. When the stranger 
started to lead her away she jist looked back at Jobe and 
me, so pleadin like, as much as to say: “ Dont let him 
take me away from you!” 

When I seen that look my heart come up in my throat, 
and I jist couldent hold in any longer. I busted out a 



“Jobe and me both sot down and cried.” 


cryin, and so did poor Jobe. We both sot there and cried 
and looked at our poor Betty as fur as we could see her, 
and she kept a lookin back at us, nickerin — tryin to speak 
the best she could. 

Ever since she has been gone my heart keeps a comin up 
in my throat, and tears keeps comin in my eyes every time 
I think of her. I know it is foolish and no use, but I cant 
help it. 

I know the interest has to be paid if it takes everything 


BETTY , ; THE DRIVIN ANIMAL . 


51 


we have, but I cant help cryin when I think poor Betty is 
gone from us forever — yes, gone for interest. 

Well, with the $42 for Betty and twenty-six bushels of 
wheat and twenty-eight bushels of corn and $14 worth of 
sheep, and the only brood sow we had, and 96 cents’ worth 
of old iron, Jobe has been able to raise $92.34, arter payin 
Banker Jones the discount for cashin the notes he took for 
the sheep and the sow, and Jobe says he cant think of 
another thing to sell. I jist up and says, says I : 

“Jobe, its awful. Poor Betty gone for interest; our 
wheat gone ; nearly all our corn ; our sheep gone ; our 
brood sow ; and what will we have to show for it when the 
interest is paid? Nothin. We will owe jist as much on 
the mortgage as before. But Jobe, dear,” says I, “I will 
help you all I can to raise the balance. I will spare you a 
dozen hens, though layin time is just here. And there is 
my carpet rags, that I wanted to git made into a new 
carpet for the spare room ; we might sell them for some- 
thing. And I have them two new quilts I made last fall a 
year. I can spare them by patchin up the old ones to last 
a year or so longer. I see, too, Jobe, that feathers are a 
good price, considerin the times ; we could sell all the 
feathers we have in our pillers, if you think you could 
sleep on straw pillers awhile, until times git better. If 
you say so, Jobe, lie gether all these things up and we will 
take them to town and sell them for what we can git. The 
Lord knows, Jobe, I am willin to do all I can to help you 
raise the interest money.” 

As I looked at him I saw big tears rollin down his 
wrinkled cheek. 

Whether he was thinkin of poor Betty, or me a sellin 
the pillers, or what, I dont know. He said nothin, but 
turned aside and walked out toward the barn. I saw him 
usin his hankercher as he went. 


52 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


Now, though I be crazy on what I read in them noose- 
papers, though I be so crazy that I dream about it, I 
would like to ask you if my dream about the new money 
plan, and the county treasurer, and borrowing money at 
two per cent., though that dream, Bill Bowers and all, 
come from the mind of a crazy woman, sleepin alone — I 
say, wouldent it be a godsend to Jobe and his likes if he 
could go to the county treasurer this spring and if, by givin 
the same kind of a mortgage he gave Congressman Richer, 
he could git the money to pay Mr. Richer off at only two 
per cent.? Next year our interest would only be a little 
over $40. 

And, oh, how that lump comes up in my throat when I 
think that if we had had sicli a law this Aprile we need 
not have sold poor Betty. 

Would it not be better to have a State law authorizin our 
county treasurer to receive deposits, and loan money at a 
low interest, even if we had to take tax off from money to 
do it, than to have people sellin the things they love, doin 
without the things they ort to have, and losin their homes? 
Who would sich a law hurt? Congressman Richer and his 
likes would git their money if they wanted it, and Jobe and 
his likes would be able to pay two per cent, interest and 
some on the mortgage every year. And jist to think, if 
interest was less, the difference in interest alone would pay 
off all the mortgages in this county in a few years. 

Then people would live in homes of their own, in homes 
with no mortgages on them. 

Everybody would be out of debt and happy. But Ime 
talkin crazy agin and will have to stop until Jobe and me 
gits back from town. 


CHAPTER VII. 


THEY DRIVE OLD TOM. 

J OBE and me have been to town and we are back alive, 
thank goodness. There is no place like home — if it 
is mortgaged. 

Last Tuesday mornin, bright and airly, Jobe and me got 
up and got ready to go to town to raise some more interest 
money. 

I wore that blue cambric dress that Simon Kinsey’s wife 
got me for helpin her make apple butter last fall three 
years ago, and the lace cap mother knit and gave me the 
year John Sherman fust begin to borrow greenback money 
on bonds and burn it up, and that black straw hat Mrs. 
Vest Hummel traded me for that half dozen of dominie 
hens the spring she was married. 

While I was a standin before the lookin glass gittin 
ready Jobe come in, as men allers do, and says, says he : 
“Betsy, are you ever goin to git ready?” 

Then he begin to comment on my clothes. Says he : 
“I hope you haint a goin to wear that cap? Why, its 
out of fashion ten years ago. Haint you got a dress with 
bigger sleeves in? Why dont you borrow a hat more 
becomin you?” 

I stood it as long as I could, then I jist up and says, 
says I : 

“Jobe Gaskins, my mother wore a cap, and she made 
this one with her own fingers, and, fashion or no fashion, I 
expect to wear it when and where I please. If my dress 
sleeves haint big enough to suit you, you quit votin the 

53 


54 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM1CRAT. 



“Started for town bright and airly.” 


ticket that is causin us farmers to spend five dollars for 
interest and taxes to one for women’s clothes. If my hat 
is out of date, sir, you begin to inquire why I haint able 
to buy a new one, and see if you cant have sense enough 
to vote for a better system of laws, instid of votin for a 
lot of office-seekin canderdates who belong to your party 
for the salary they are a gittin or expect to git. Yes, see 
if you cant have sense enough to vote for a party that will 
make laws for the farmer as well as for the banker.” 

You ort a seen him tuck tail and sneak. 

The idea of a man, with the sense Jobe Gaskins has, 
wantin his wife to put on airs, when he knows it takes all 
she can rake and scrape to help pay interest and taxes to 
the leadin citizens so they and their wives can put em on! 

Well, we loaded in our truck — that is, our chickens and 
our quilts and our feathers and sich, and started for town 
bright and airly. 

We hitched old Tom, the only boss we have since we 
sold Betty, to the spring wagon. 

Tom haint purty, and, bein stringhalted in his right 
hind leg and lame in his left fore foot, I couldent help 
thinkin of poor Betty as we proceeded toward town. Betty 
would trot along as though she enjoyed takin us. Tom 
he limped and jerked along as though he would like any- 
thing else. 


THEY DRIVE OLD TOM. 


55 


We finally got there, and from the time we struck the 
superbs of the town till we hitched in front of Urfer’s store 
people were a snickerin, and a titterin, and a pintin at us. 

Women would come to the winders and scream out a 
kind of a holler laf, and then two or three more would 
come, and they would laf and titter and holler until I was 
ashamed of them. 

When we got up to the court-house square a lot of 
young upstarts, eighteen or nineteen years old, were 
standin on the corner by Miller’s drug-store, smokin paper 
segars, and they begin to holler at us and poor old 
crippled Tom, all sich nonsense as “Git on to that horse,” 
“See his gait,” “Where’d yer git that hat?” “ Have you 
got any hay to sell?” “See her style!” “Oh, haint she a 
lolly?” etcetery. 

I dont know who, they were, but they were young men 
and big enough to have more sense and better manners ; 
but I guess maybe their raisin was neglected and they 
couldent help it. They dident look like coal miners, or mill 
hands, or farmers, and I know they wasent sich. They all 
were well dressed and wore pinted yaller shoes. They 
couldent a been the sons of the leadin citizens, because one 
would think they would teach their offspring better sense. 
Maybe they were orphans, born without parents. I dont 
know. 

Well, arter we got through the storm of insult and 
abuse that we had to suffer because we had to sell our 
drivin animal to git interest money, we begin to try to sell 
our stuff. Most of the stores was willin to trade goods for 
what we had, but none of em wanted to spare any money. 
We went from one store to another, Jobe a tellin them 
that he had to have money to meet interest, and that we 
were sellin our quilts and pillers to git it. Fust one and 
then another would buy somethin, jist to accommodate 


5 ^ 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


us, until we finally got our stuff all disposed of. We got 
$14.45 in cash, which, added to what Jobe had, made 
$106.79, lackin $19.21 of enough to pay Congressman 
Richer the $126 interest. 

We was in Mathias & Dick’s store when we sold the 
last of our stuff, and steppin aside Jobe and me counted 
up how much we had and how much we lacked. 

“Well, Betsy,” says Jobe, “where will we git the 
balance?” 

I studied a minit. Then it come to me all at once. 

“Why, Jobe,” says I, “lets go and accept that cander- 
date feller’s invitation to ‘come and see him arter lie’s 
elected he’s elected, and you voted fur him and fed him 
and his hoss when he was runnin. He will lend you the 
$19.21 you lack.” 

“ Maybe he will,” says Jobe ; “ lets go and see.” 

And at that we started fur the court-house. 

Jist as we got across the street onto them big stone 
flaggin in front of the court-house, we met that Republican 
feller with black mustache and curly like hair who is 
hankerin arter the county clerk’s office. Sa}^s he : 

“Why, hello, Gaskins, howdy do?” all smilin and 
nearly shakin the arm off Jobe. “Well, Gaskins, weve 
got em out,” says he, “got em out! Every office in that 
grand old buildin is now okepied by one of our own fellers. 
I tell you, Gaskins, its a day we may well feel proud of,” 
hittin Jobe a lick on the shoulder. 

“Well,” says Jobe, “I cant see as it makes much 
difference to me. Taxes are jist as high and interest 
money as hard to raise as it was when the Dimicrats were 
in. I cant see where us tax-payers has anything to be 
proud of ; we dont git any of the salaries.” 

“Why, Gaskins, what do you mean?” says he. “Dont 
you feel proud that the people of our own party, the 


THEY DRIVE OLD TOM . 


57 



Republicans, has at 
last routed the Dem- 
mies from the county, 
offices?” 

‘‘No, I cant say as 
Ido,” says Jobe ; “fact 
is, I cant see much 
difference to me be- 
tween a good Dimicrat 
and a good Republican 
or between a bad Dim- 
icrat and a bad Re- 
publican, so long as 
both are willin to let 
bad laws remain and 
good ones go unmade, 
provided they git to 
draw a salary. Where 
is the difference?” says Jobe, with force. 

“Gaskins!” says he, steppin back and lookin at Jobe 
from head to foot. “Gaskins, is it possible you are 
succumbin to pettycoat argament?” (lookin sideways 
at me). 

I was teched. 

I jist up and says, says I : 

“ Mister Canderdate, it would be a Lord’s blessin if him 
and more of his likes would listen to pettycoat argament 
instid of the argament of you office-seekin canderdates.” 
Says I: “Come on, Jobe,” takin hold of his arm and 
startin. 

I looked back when I got a piece away, and I seed the 
feller had met Doc Tinker and was pintin at my clothes 
and smijin. I thought I heard Doc say: 

“Yes, them are the marks of prosperity the admin- 


“Jobe and me counted up how much 
we had.” 


58 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


istrations of the past thirty years have scattered over the 
country.” 

That is what I thought he said. The feller went on 
across the street. I dident see him smile or pint any 
more. 

Well, we went on to accept the invitation to see the 
feller okepy a county office. 

We dumb up them high steps, went through them big 
doors, past several fine rooms, till we come to the sign of 
that office to which he was elected. 

The dQor was shet. 

Jobe knocked, and some one inside hollered, “Come in.” 

They hadent manners enough to git up and open the 
door for us. 

In we went. It was a nice place, nicer than my spare 
room, and so warm and pleasant. If I could git to live 
there day in and day out, without payin interest money or 
rent, Ide do all their writin for a good deal less than what 
I hear they git. It is so nice. 

Well, when we got in we found two men and two women 
settin over next to the winder, a eatin oranges and laffin. 
Nobody was doin nothin. 

I spect the county officer got up airly so as to do his 
work before his visitors would come. 

They all was a talkin and a laffin and a shootin orange 
seeds at each other, and enjoyin theirselves high. 

They stopt when we went in, and the feller what eat our 
dinner and hoss feed come up to the fence and asked 
what he could do for us, lookin round at the women. 

The women they would look at me, then at one another, 
then whisper, then look out of the winder and laf. 

Jobe, answerin the feller, says, says he : 

“I want to borry $19.21 till arter oats harvest.” 

Says the feller : 


THEY DRIVE OLD TOM. 


59 

‘‘Why, my dear man, I dont know you,” lookin round 
towards the women. 

They smiled. 

“Dont know me?” says Jobe. “Why, Ime Jobe Gas- 
kins, the most prominent and influential Republican in our 
township. Jist afore election last fall you was at my 
house, when you was runnin. I voted for you.” 

The feller studied a minit. 

“That may all be, Mr. Gaskins,” says he, “but I saw 
so many people durin my campaign, and so many voted 
for me that if I was to lend each of them $19.21 I would 
have nothing left for myself. I can not accommodate you. 
You see I have company” (pintin to the women), “so you 
will have to excuse me ” (turnin to leave us). 

I jist up and says, says I : 

“Hold on, Mister Officer! Dont be in a hurry. We 
are here by your invitation. We paid you for the privilege 
of visitin you — paid you, sir, in boss feed and grub, besides 
payin by taxes to come here any time we see fit. We 
have come to stay all day ; to visit with you. I have 
brought my knittin and am in no hurry. You ort a be 
decent enough to ask us over the fence and give us cheers 
to sit down on.” 

You ort a seen them women. They looked distrest. 

The officer looked tired. 

The women begun to tuck their skirts close agin their 
legs. I suppose they wanted to keep my cambric dress 
from rubbin em. 

But land a goodness! jist to torment em I said I was 
goin to stay. I knode they would have no more fun that 
arternoon if I stayed there. I knode I wouldent be wel- 
come, and if Ide a had to stayed there Ide a wanted them 
women gone. 

When that feller said he wouldent I knode it was no use 


6o 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


of askin any more. What does he care for the hardships 
of old Jobe Gaskins and his wife Betsy? 

So I jist up and says, says I : 

“Dont worry, Jobe. Weve got along without any com- 
modation from him ; we can git along agin. Arter this 
when a office-seekin canderdate comes to our house and 
talks about your bein the ‘ most intelligent, influential 
and prominent Republican in our township,’ and is ‘ aston- 
ished that you ever read sich nonsense as Populist noose- 
papers, much less indorse them that talks about the 
Dimicrats all bein rascals and the Populists all cranks ; 
that feeds you on three-for-five segars and tells you they 
are regular five-centers, you have sense enough to charge 
him 25 cents for dinner and 15 cents for hoss feed. 

“When votin day comes recollect that * self-preservation 
is the fust law of natur that the officeholder draws the 
salary and you pay the taxes ; that votin can bring you to 
distress or prosperity. 

“Come on,” says I, and we left. 

None of them was laflin. They seemed to be thinkin. 

Jobe he was jist so disappinted at not gittin the money, 
and his perlitical loyalty was so shockt at the feller fur- 
gittin him, that he wouldent try to borry the interest 
money any more that day. 

We jist got in our wagon and went up that alley by 
Urfer’s store till we got out of town. Nobody seen us. 

Jobe is diggin a well for Bill Gerber, gittin 50 cents a 
day. 

If they dont strike water too soon, and if it dont take 
too long, and if the fust of Aprile dont come too airly, we 
may be able to raise the balance of the interest money in 
time to keep from being foreclosed. 

No letter from Congressman Richer yit. 

I wish interest was two per cent., dream or no dream. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


ANOTHER LETTER FROM RICHER. 

J OBE went to the election Monday and voted her 
strait. That nite I put another patch on his pants. 
Ive been a doin his patchin just arter election every 
year since 1873. 

Jobe dont mind patches so long as the Republicans are 
in, but there is no end to his kickin if the Dimicrats are in. 

I cant see what difference it makes ; the patchin has to 
be done, and more of it, every year. 

Tuesday Jobe went to town to pay his interest and hear 
how the election went. He had borrowed what he lacked 
of Bill Gerber and will work it out at diggin that well. 

When he got to town he went strait to Jones’s bank 
and paid the $126 interest, then went to the post-office and 
got this letter : 

OFFICE OF 

BERIAR WILKINSON, 

General Speculator and Political Wire-Puller. 
D. M. J. Richer, Attorney. 

Washington, D. C., Mar. 29, 1895. 

J. Gaskins, Esq.: 

Dear Sir — Your letter to hand. I must have the money. 
I have instructed my attorney to begin foreclosure proceed- 
ings at once, unless the $2,100 is paid by April 10th, 1895. 

Yours truly. 

D. M. J. Richer. 

This took Jobe’s breath. He forgot to ask who was 
elected. He hurried from the post-office to the bank, to 
git his interest money back, hopin he could save that 
much. 

61 


62 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


When he got into the bank 
and explained to Mr. Jones 
that he had got that letter 
and that he wanted his in- 
terest money back, Banker 
Jones kind a smiled and 
said: “You should have 

gone to the post-office first, 
Mr. Gaskins. I cannot give 
you the money back now. 
That would not be bizness, 
Mr. Gaskins. It would not 
be bizness.” 

Jobe he explained to him 
that the reason he did not 
go to the post-office fust was because he was anxious to git 
the interest paid, and that was the fust thing on his mind. 

“Cant help it,” says the banker. 

Jobe he begged and plead for the money. Told him of 
our sellin Betty, and our wheat, and corn, and sheep, and 
hog, and quilts, and feathers, and chickens, and of his 
borrowin part of it from Bill Gerber — told him how he had 
tried to borrow the money to pay it all and couldent find 
any one that had it to loan ; he showed him how, if we were 
foreclosed, we would have nothin left at all. 

Banker Jones told him it was too bad, but it couldent be 
helped ; he couldent give Jobe any of the interest money 
back. 

“ Bizness is bizness,” says Banker Jones, “and I have 
to do bizness accordin to bizness rules.” 

Jobe asked him to be merciful, and told him the Lord 
would bless him if he would show mercy to them a needin 
mercy. 

But Banker Jones said he was purty comfortable as it 



“That night I put another patch on 
his pants.” 


ANOTHER LETTER FROM RICHER. 


63 


was, and when he needed 
any favors from the Lord 
he ginerally paid “spot 
cash” for em; in fact he had 
several blessins paid for in 
advance. 

Then he told Jobe if he 
had any other bizness to 
attend to he had better go 
and attend to it, as he was 
bizzy. 

Poor Jobe! He jist got 
out and come home. He 
says he dont recollect how 
he got home, he felt so 
dazed and queer. He has 
been droopin around all day. 

He looks distrest ; and, poor 
man, I know he is. The 
Lord only knows what will 
become of us — I dont. 

My heart has been a raisin up in my throat all day. 

Every time I see anybody a comin up the road I feel 
faint like and skeert. I think its the sheriff a comin to 
notify us that we are foreclosed. 

If Jobe had only heerd how the election went he might 
feel better. I wish the Republicans got in. I wish it, 
though Ime a Dimicrat. I wish it for Jobe’s sake. It 
might help him bear his trouble better. 

Jist to think, if we had only $2,100 of all them 
$683,000,000 of greenbacks that John Sherman burned up 
when he was in office — yes, and put Jobe and his likes in 
bonds to git them to burn — I say if we had only $2,100 of 



6 4 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


all them millions, we couid pay off our mortgage and Jobe 
would be happy. 

If Sherman had burned less of that money, I wonder if 
Jobe and his likes wouldent have more? 

Do the people in the poor-house have interest, and mort' 
gages, and foreclosures, and taxes and sich to worry them? 

I have to quit. My heart is heavy. 



CHAPTER IX. 


A FEW REASONS BY BETSY. 

T HE Republicans swept the platter. They elected 
every officer from township clerk down, and the 
sheriff has sent Jobe a notice to appear before the 
Common Pleas Court and show cause why he should not 
be foreclosed. 

Jobe feels good over the election, but bad over the 
notice. 

Now I think there are a good many reasons why we 
shouldent be foreclosed, and more reasons why we hadent 
ort to be. Its not our fault that we have to be. 

First. We shouldent be because Jobe has voted the 
strait Republican ticket, rain or shine, for nigh onto 
thirty-five years. In this he has done his dooty — as he 
seen it. 

Second. We have paid our taxes every year without 
ceasin, not even complainin when the law-makers drawed 
two years’ pay for one year’s work, nor when new officers 
were added and old ones given more wages. In this we 
done more than our dooty. 

Third. We have given all we raised to Congressman 
Richer for interest, not even keepin enough out to take a 
trip to Urope or to buy me a new spring bonnet. In this 
we done all our health and opportunity enabled us to do. 

Fourth. We have indorsed everything the polertlcians 
and office-seekers done or said durin our united lives, 
even havin to change our minds as often as twice a year to 
do so. In this we have been foolish. 

65 


66 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICE AT 


Fifth. When John Sherman was a burnin up that 
$623,428,000 of greenback money and givin the rich men 
of New York and Urope mortgages on our property to git 
the money to burn, I agreed it was fine sport, jist to please 
Jobe, and when Jobe said the national debt John was 
makin was a national blessin, I nodded my head to it, 
though I was a Dimicrat. I nodded to keep peace in the 
family. 

I am now payin for them nods, payin for them in fifty- 
cent wheat and high interest. 

Sixth. We have taken good care of the farm, and have 
jist as many acres as when we bought it from Mr. Richer 
and give him a mortgage for the balance due. We have 
paid him $1,700 of the purchase price and all we raised 
besides, and I think he ort to wait till land increases in 
price before foreclosin us. 

We sent him down to Congress to make laws for us, and 
it was his dooty to make sich laws as would make it easier 
for Jobe and his likes to git a home and git it paid for. 
He dident do it. In this he dident do his dooty, 

Now, suppose Mr. Richer, as our Congressman, had 
introduced a bill, and got it made into a law somethin 
like my dream was. He would have been sent back to 
Congress and a been a drawin $5,000 a year salary and 
disposin of post-offices and sich at payin prices, and 
wouldent need the money still due on the mortgage, or if 
he did need it to help him out on his real estate deals, 
under that new bill Jobe could borrow the money of the 
county at two per cent, and pay it, and besides could pay 
the interest easier and have more each year to pay on the 
mortgage. 

You remember that my dream was that Congress had 
passed a law that hereafter, when more money was needed 
to do bizness with in any county, instead of the United 


A FEW REASONS BY BETSY. 


67 


States lendin it to the national banks at one per cent., 
and lettin the banks loan it to the people at eight or ten 
per cent., I dreamed that the law was that the same 
officers of the government should lend it to the county at 
one per cent., on county bonds as security, and that the 
county treasurer should lend it to the people of his county 
at two per cent., on sich security as the banks now take, 
and I drempt that Jobe and me and Bill Bowers went to 
the county treasurer to see about gittin the money to pay 
Congressman Richer the $ 2,100 , and we found that sich a 
law was passed, and the county still lived. And I dreamed 
that the bankers was a peckin, and a beckenin, and a 
coaxin of people to borrow their money at the same rate of 
interest as the county treasurer loaned it. Now, had we 
ort to be foreclosed because no sich law was made? Had 
Congressman Richer ort a want to foreclose us when he 
dident try to git sich a law made? Had we ort to be fore- 
closed when Jobe has been a votin men into office to make 
laws that would make it easier for him to live and pay for 
his home, and they dident do it? Had we ort to be fore- 
closed because them men have made laws agin Jobe instead 
of fur him? Made laws to reduce the value of his farm and 
the price of his crops ; made it harder for him to pay 
debt? 

Had Mr. Richer even made a law permittin county 
treasurers to receive deposits of people who would ruther 
put their money in the county treasury than in banks, and 
allowed the county treasurer to loan it out in the name of 
the county at three or four per cent., givin all he received 
as interest, less what it cost to attend to it, to the fellers 
what deposited it, it would a helped us some. But he 
dident do it nor try to do it. 

If we are foreclosed and our farm is sold by the sheriff, 
and Mr. Richer bids it in for $ 2,100 and gits the farm back, 


68 


BETSY GASKINS , D1 MIC RAT. 


where is Jobe’s $1,700 cash paid on the principal and 
$2,212 interest money he has paid? 

Who gits it? What has Jobe got for it? For who has 
Jobe and me been a workin for the last sixteen years? 
For who is this foreclosin law, with high interest, made? 
I hope we will be able to git our case at court put off till 
arter the fall election and corn huskin! Livin in this hope 
I must retire to bed. Jobe is asleep in his cheer. Every 
little bit there is a troubled look comes into his face, as 
though his dreams haint all pleasant. 



CHAPTER X. 


IS THERE A WOMAN IN THE BARN? 

Y OUB a dide to see the fun I had with Jobe day 
before yisterday. It was warm like, and I went out 
to the barn to see what Jobe was a doin. When I 
got up to the barn door I heerd Jobe a talkin. Peekin in 
through a crack, I seed Jobe settin on the half-bushel, 
lookin desperate and jist a layin it off with his hands, like 
as if he was argyin with some one. At times he come so 
near a swearin that he is in danger of gittin churched, if 
they find it out on him. Jist as I got my eye to that crack 
he brought his fist down on his knee with force, and says, 
says he : 

“Ive been made a fool of and I know it. Ive marched 
up to the ballot-box for nigh onto thirty-five years and 
voted men into office that cared no more for Jobe Gaskins 
and his likes than they did for a good fox hound, and not 
as much. They said it was necessary to destroy the green- 
backs, and I said, ‘Destroy them.’ They said, ‘We ort 
to demonitize silver,’ and I said, ‘Demonitize her.’ I 
seed that times was gittin harder, but they said way back 
in the seventies that the tariff ort to be higher, and the 
next year higher, and higher, and higher. And every time 
they said higher I hollered, and the higher they made it 
the louder I hollered, and kept a hollerin until to-day 
about all I have to show for my hollerin and votin is the 
holler, and there is dummed little of that left now. 

“Here I am a old man. I have worked hard, year in 
and year out, and have been fool enough to vote a ticket 

69 


70 


BETSY GASKINS , D I MIC RAT. 


that was enslavin 
me for thirty years 
or more. The 
wealth that I have 
produced by my 
hard work has 
been taken from me 
by the laws they 
have made, while 
the fellers I have 
voted for have got 
rich, and say that 
it is my fault if I 
am poor. Me and 
my likes had to be 
made poor in order 
that others might 
be made rich. Its 
no fault of mine. 
Ive tried to be 
honest and scorn 
Peekm through a crack.” dishonesty, and am 

to-day nearly without a home for bein sich and for votin the 
strait ticket and not askin what they was doin ; while 
the fellers I have voted for looked on dishonesty as a 
honor, and have made laws by which the products of my 
labor has been taken from me and given to themselves and 
others no more honest. Ime dummed if I know what to do. 

“If I leave the party the polerticians and officeseekers 
will call me a ‘sorehead’ and sich names ; if I stay in I am 
doomed to distress. 

“I wish the Republicans would make some of them 
Populist ideas into a law. Ide — Ide ” 

Just then I opened the door all of a suddent, and says : 



IS THERE A WOMAN IN THE BARN ? 


71 


l( Jobe, who air you talkin to?” 

“Nobody, nobody,” says he, gittin up and steppin 
round, quick like. 

“Jobe Gaskins,” says I, puttin my hands on my hips 
and throwin my head back. “Jobe Gaskins, dident I hear 
you a talkin?” 

“No, you dident,” says he, mad like. “I haint spoke 
a word for hours.” 

I stepped back a step or two, lookin Jobe square in the 
face. Says I : 



“Jist a lay in it off with his hands.” 


“Jobe, I heerd you a talkin, and you needent deny it. 
If there is a woman in this barn I want to know it.” 

At that Jobe got mad, and comin at me with his fist 
drawed, says he : 

“Betsy Gaskins, do you dare accuse me with anything 
like that?” grittin his few teeth. 

I had grabbed the pitchfork. Says I : 

“Jobe, take care!” 


72 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICE AT . 


He stopped, and I started to turn the hay upside down, 
sayin, “If there is a woman in here, lie — lie ” 

Jobe he watched me a minit or two ; then says he : 

“ Betsy, what the Harry is the matter with you? There 
haint any woman in here.” 

And at that he sneaked out of the barn and went down 
in the sheep-shed. 

Now, jist to think! There is Jobe Gaskins, a man of 
good sense, a man who sees that every law made by the 
Republican party since the war was a law agin him, and 
for people who make their livin off Jobe and his likes 
without workin. Yit, fool like, Jobe will keep a votin his 
party ticket, jist to please a lot of office-seekin canderdates 
and “hangers-on” that eek out a existence by doin the 
dirty jobs set up by the leadin polerticians and fellers who 
pay to git laws made agin Jobe and his likes. 

Jobe ort to be ashamed to admit that he was talkin the 
talk I heerd him talkin. 

But, poor Jobe, I suppose he will keep a votin for the 
hand that has smote him, and will keep a smotin him, till 
he is in his grave and beyond smotin. 

Had the Republican party made laws for all the people, 
instid of for only the rich ; had they made laws to make 
interest less and taxes lower ; had they made laws to make 
it easier for people to borrow money when they needed it, 
instid of makin it scarce and hard to git — I say, if they 
had made sich laws, if they had been as foolish as my 
dream was, do you suppose Jobe and me would have to go 
to court next week to show cause why we hadent ort to be 
foreclosed? 


CHAPTER XI. 


“ IN TOWN.” 

W E are at court. The case is on. Poor Jobe, he is 
so worried and troubled and downhearted that he 
dont seem to enthuse when the officeseekin can- 
derdates and polerticians are shakin of his hand and tellin 
him that “we got there, and are now ready for ’96,” 
&c., &c. 

Jobe he jist takes it, and says : “ Is that so?” 

Not one of all them polerticians or canderdate fellers 
seems to know that one of their “old and respected 
citizens ” is about to be foreclosed out of house and 
home. Not one of them seems to care if he does know. 
The leadinest idea in their minds is gittin office and 
enthusin over the election. But I notice some of them 
dident come near, but seem kinder cold toward Jobe. I 
spect they have heerd of the foreclosin and dont want to 
be seen in our company. 

Well, we got to town this mornin and come strait to 
court. I jist felt as though the house would fall on me ; I 
was so out of place. 

But them lawyers and fellers what okepy that field over 
the fence from the common herd, they jist walked around 
and whispered, and tiptoed, and laffed, as though they was 
raised right there in that field all their useless lives. Some 
of them even had nice tables to put their feet on, and 
carpet and soft cheers and sich. Well, I spect the poor 
things were brought up tender like, and it would hurt them 
to git along with common things like taxpayers git 
along on. 


73 


74 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 


Well, arter a while the 
judge come, and the offi- 
cer opened court. 

Then the case of 
“ Richer, Plaintiff, 
vs. 

Gaskins, Defendant,” 
was called. 

I felt like as if Ide faint 
— gone like. 

The judge asked if the 
parties to the case were in 
court and ready for trial. 

The lawyer for Con- 
gressman Richer got up 
and said he was “ there 
and ready.” 

Then the court called for the “ defendant, Gaskins.” 
Poor Jobe he jist sot still and looked as white as a 
ghost. He never moved. 

I hunched him, and told him to “git up and answer.” 
He said he couldent ; he was sick. 

The court, kinder mad like, called for “Gaskins” agin, 
when I riz up and says : 

“ Mistur Court, Gaskins is here, and I am Betsy 
Gaskins, the lawful wife of Jobe Gaskins, the defendant.” 
“Whose your lawyer?” says the court. 

“We haint got any,” says I. 

“Youd better git counsel,” says the court, “if you 
desire to contest this case.” 

“Will counsel keep us from bein foreclosed?” says I. 
The judge said the case would be decided on the law 
and evidence. 

“Then,” says I, “ what do we need of counsel? You 



‘Mr. Court, Gaskins is here.’ 


“IN TOWN 


75 


have the law, and we will give you the evidence, and if the 
court please, if our side needs any pleadin, lie do it 
myself.” 

I hadent them words out of my mouth till up jumped 
Mr. Richer’s lawyer and says : 

“ I ’bject.” 

The court said that I could not do the pleadin, as I was 
not a party to the case, nor had I a license to practice 
before the court. 

I riz up agin. 

“Mistur Judge,” says I, “what difference does it make 
who I am or what I am, so long as I treat the court with 
respect, and know as much, or nearly as much, about this 
case as any lawyer we could hire? 

“If the case, Mistur Judge, is to be decided on the law 
and evidence, and not on the pleadin, why cant I do what 
pleadin we need, as well as some lawyer?” 

I sot down. 

The judge looked at me a minit over his specks. 

“Well, Mrs. Gaskins,” says he, “if we allowed any- 
body and everybody to come into our courts and represent 
a neighbor or friend, half our lawyers would have nothin 
to do. The law prohibiting this privilege is made so as to 
afford our attorneys a livelihood. While it sometimes 
proves a hardship to litigants, it would be a greater hard- 
ship on our lawyers if they dident have sich a law in their 
favor. However, Mrs. Gaskins, as this is a case of small 
importance, if the bar is willing I will permit you to say 
what you desire in behalf of the defendant.” 

Turin to the lot of high-toned cattle over the fence 
from us, says he : “What do you say, gentlemen?” 

They kind a hemmed and hawed and whispered together, 
and looked disgusted and disappinted and contemptible, 
and finally one of them sa}'s : 


76 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



“We shant ’bject.” 


And four or five of em 
got up and left, lookin 
like as if they had lost 
somethin. 


Well, the judge invited 
us over into the field. 



‘“I ’bject.’” 


We went in, and I sot 
down by a table. The 
lawyer for Mr. Richer 
got up and stated his 
case. He said that he 


would prove that a number of years ago one Jobe Gaskins 
purchased from the Honorable D. M. J. Richer certain lands 
and tenements to the value of $3,800; that there has been 
but $1,700 paid on the amount ; that there remains due and 
unpaid some $2,100, which is secured by mortgage. And 
he was there to pray for the foreclosure of said mortgage 
and sale of the premises to satisfy said claim. 

He sot down. 

I got up. 

I says, says I : “ Mistur Judge, this here case haint 

just exactly like that there lawyer said. We claim there 
haint no $2,100 still due Mr. Richer, although he has our 
notes and a mortgage for that amount. We claim that he 
has got nearly full value for all we got from him. We 
have paid him $1,700 of the principal and over $2,200 in 
interest. The land, for some cause, haint worth now as 
much as we paid for it, and we expect to prove that Jobe 
haint done anything to cause the land to fall in value. 
The land may now be worth $2,500, if we could find some 
one that had the money and wanted to buy land. If we 
are foreclosed and forced to sell it, it may not bring more 
than the $2,100 that he claims we owe him. 


“IN town:' 


77 


“Now, we want to be fair with Congressman Richer, 
Mistur Judge, and all we ask is that Mr. Richer and his 
likes what lends money be treated by the law and the 
courts the same as Jobe and his likes what owes money is 
treated. 

“Now, as I said before, Mistur Judge, the farm is the 
same size as it was the day we bought it ; the land is jist as 
good ; the improvements are better. We have paid Mr. 
Richer his interest every year for sixteen years, and $1,700 
besides. 

“Now, Mistur Judge, wouldent it be fair for Mr. Richer 
to take the farm back and give us our $1,700? He would 
•have jist what he had before we bought it, and he would 
have $2,212 interest money for the use of it, and we would 
have the $1,700 we have paid him over and above the 
interest. 

“Or, if he dont want to do that, Mistur Judge, we will 
value the farm at $2,500, which is all or more than its 
worth to-day, and will pay him the difference between the 
$1,700 we already have paid and the $2, 500, or $800, in cash. 

“Now, Mistur Judge, this would be honest and fair, and 
he can take his choice, while if you foreclose us, and the 
farm at sheriff sale only brings $2,100, and Mr. Richer 
buys it in, he will have the farm he had at fust, our $1,700 
principal and the $2,212 interest money we have paid him, 
or he will have the farm and $3,912 in money, and we in 
our old age will have nothin.” 

When I was through the other lawyer got up and said 
sich argament was all bosh and contrary to law ; that the 
court had too good sense to be governed by sich anachristic 
talk from a rattle-brained woman. At that, it bein noon, 
the court dismissed for dinner, without explainin why this 
was “a case of small importance.” It looks to me that 
its a purty tolerable important case to Jobe and me. 


CHAPTER XII. 


THE DECISION. 

T HAT day, when the judge and lawyers got back from 
dinner, and arter Jobe and me had eat our lunch in 
the jury-room, they opened court agin, and the judge, 
lookin at me tired like, says : 

“Mrs. Gaskins, the court is now ready to proceed with 
the case.” 

“So be we, Mistur Judge,” says I. 

So Congressman Richer’s lawyer got out a lot of papers 
and notes, and, showin them to Jobe and me, asked us if 
we admitted signin of them. 

“Certainly we do,” says I. 

So he handed them to the judge, sayin that that was 
all the evidence he desired to produce, and as the notes 
had not been paid, as stipulated in the mortgage, he asked 
to have the mortgage foreclosed and the property sold, and 
judgment for costs rendered agin the defendant. 

At that he sot down. 

Jobe he looked distressed. 

I felt kind a gone like. 

But when the judge said that if we had any evidence to 
produce or objection to make why the mortgage should 
not be foreclosed, now was my time to make it, I jist 
gathered up courage and says, says I : 

“Mistur Judge, we have some evidence to offer, and I 
want to say a few words. 

“We never denied that we signed that mortgage and 

78 


THE DECISION . 


79 


<v.' 



them notes ; we never claimed we had paid all we did 
sign. 

“Now, what I want to prove, Mistur Judge, is, that the 
reason we haint paid more of the notes was because times 
have been so hard, prices so low and money so scarce that 
we jist couldent pay any more than we have paid. 

“I want to prove that we have paid every dollar we 
could pay, and that we have went naked and hungry, or 
nearly so, to pay what we have paid, 

“I want to prove, Mistur Judge, that when we bought 
this farm, some sixteen years ago, times were better than 
now; that farmers could sell what they raised for more 
than now ; and I want to prove that it has not been by any 
act of the farmers that times have been made harder and 
prices lower than then. 

“I want to prove, Mistur Judge, that taxes haint got 
any less ; that interest is jist as high as then ; that it takes 
twice as many bushels of wheat for Jobe to pay his share 
of your wages, and the wages of the other officers in this 
buildin, as it did then. I want to prove that Jobe had to 
use wheat to pay you fellers that he could have used 


8o 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT . 


toward payin on them notes if prices had staid up or 
officers’ pay had been brought down. 

“I want to show you that all you officeholders have 
helped to bring about this condition by your endorsin of 
men that made laws to destroy the greenback, to demoni- 
tize silver, encouragin high interest and money monopoly, 
and by your increasin of wages of officeholders or lettin 
them remain the same as they were when wheat was high. 

“ I want to prove, Mistur Judge, that Mr. Richer was one 
of the law-makers, that he voted agin silver, and did not 
try to do anything or to make any law to make money as 
plenty as it use to be. 

“ I want to show that Mr. Richer already has got all we 
have raised by our hard work for the last sixteen years, 
and, Mistur Judge, I think that instid of you sellin our farm 
to satisfy him, you ort to order him to give us back all the 
money we have paid him, except the interest, and let us 
give him back the property we got from him ; we are willin 
to do this, and give him our improvements besides, if he 
will give us back our $1,700. This is all we ask, Mistur 
Judge. 

“ If you grant it we would have a few dollars to keep us 
in our old age, and Mr. Richer would have all we got from 
him and $2,212 interest money besides. 

“If you foreclose us, as this high-toned lawyer asks 
you to do, we will have nothing left, and Mr. Richer will 
have as much as he had before and $3,912 of our hard- 
earned money besides, part of it, Mistur Judge, bein money 
I got from home when father died.” 

The judge kind a looked at me pityin like, and says, 
says he : 

“Mrs. Gaskins, your argament may be all right from 
your point of view ; but it is not law, Mrs. Gaskins. It is 
not law. We must proceed according to law.” 


THE DECISION. 


8l 


“What is law?” says I. “ Haint it justice?” pleadin 
like. 

The judge studied a minit, cleared his throat a time or 
two, and then says he : 

“It is supposed to be, Mrs. Gaskins. It is supposed to 
be. It should be justice ; it should be. I appreciate the 
position of you two old people. I believe, as you say, that 
you have worked hard and saved that you might get your 
farm paid for and have a home in your old age. I believe 
you have done all you could do. Your argament has been 
well made. 



“But the law — the law, Mrs. Gaskins, says that if these 
notes have not been paid according to the provision of the 
mortgage, it can be foreclosed. 

“Even if you had paid all of the notes but one dollar, 
and had worked fifty years to pay them, and for some 
reason money had become scarce, and your farm under 
forced sale would not bring more than the one dollar, it 
would have to be sold, under the law, to satisfy that one 
dollar still due on it. 

“To make it plainer to you, Mrs. Gaskins, suppose that 
all the money was demonitized or destroyed except gold 


82 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



“Jobe and me sot there dazed like.” 


or silver (no matter which), and suppose that one man had 
succeeded in getting possession of all the money, and you 
owed one dollar on a farm that had cost you $3,800, you 
would have to get that one dollar from the man who had 
it, and he could place his own estimate of value on it, and 
could, if he so desired, demand 120 acres of good farm land 
for one of his dollars, and, in case of forced sale under the 
law, all the property you have would have to be sacrificed 
to satisfy that one dollar. It would have to be done, even 
though that one man who had all the money cornered 
owned your mortgage and had made the law, or got it 
made, that destroyed all the other money. So this, Mrs. 
Gaskins, is the law, whether it is justice or not, and I, as 
the judge of this court, must be governed by the law as it 
is. All the testimony you have mentioned is not such as 
could be admitted before this court. Hence I shall render 
judgment as prayed for by the plaintiff, with costs of this 
action attached. ” 



THE DECISION. 83 

I wanted to say some more, but the judge told me the 
case was over, and that I need not say any more. 

So Jobe and me sot there dazed like for a little while. 
Then the sheriff come to us and said the case was over and 
we had better go home. We got up and come home. 

We have been over the dear old farm half a dozen times, 
so as to carry its memory in our minds to wherever we shall 
go. Oh! how queer I feel when I wonder where that will be. 

Jobe is jist a mopin around with no life in him at all. 

I haint heerd him holler for McKinley since we got back 
from court. 

I wonder if Mr. McKinley, and Mark Hanna, and Henry 
Flagler, of the Standard Oil Trust, and Mr. Kohlsaat, and 
them other millionairs what has .been down in Georgia 
schemin and plannin and arrangin to git Mr. McKinley 
elected to the president’s office, want to git him elected so 
as to make it easier for Jobe and his likes to pay for their 
homes. 

I wonder if the laws they are wantin to git made, or keep 
from bein made, is to make themselves richer or to make 
the life of the fellers who vote the ticket they fix up easier. 

Them millionair fellers seem to take a great interest in 
elections and things. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


JOBE CHEERS UP. 

J OBE’S aunt Jane out in Indyana is dead. The poor, 
dear soul worked hard all her life, and now she is 
dead. She had been takin care of a rich inverlid for 
some twelve years, and got two dollars a week for all that 
time. By livin plain and not goin anywhere for all that time, 
she has saved $563, and she has left all her savins to Jobe, 
her only kin, the lawyers out there write us. 

We got a letter from them last week sayin she had 
died of a suddent, and left Jobe all she 
had, arter payin her buryin expenses. 

Jobe has been more like hisself, 
ever since he heerd she was dead, than 
he has been for some time. 

He now says that if he lives to vote 
for McKinley it will be the happiest 
moment of his life. I hope Jobe will 
live. 

As soon as he got that letter he 
started out agin to try to borrow 
enough money to pay off Mr. Richer’s 
mortgage before foreclosin day. He 
found one banker at Canal Dover 
who said he would let him have $1,800 
at seven per cent, interest, jist to commodate Jobe. Jobe is 
a goin to take it, which, with what he is to git as his dead 
aunt’s heir, will make the money Congressman Richer is 
wantin so bad, and a little besides. 

Jobe went to town yisterday to try to stop the foreclosin 

84 



JOBE CHEERS UP. 


85 



“He would call him ‘Billy,’ in honor of the next president.” 


bizness until our legicy money comes and we can git the 
other from the bank at Canal Dover. 

They told him down to the court-house that they would 
try to 4 4 stave it off. ” 

Jobe said that when the report got out that he was 
about to git a legicy everybody wanted to shake hands 
with him and be friendly like. 

Even them canderdate fellers, what acted kind a cold 
durin our foreclosin trial, come around smilin, Jobe said, 
and shook hands, and said that ‘‘they knode it would 
come around all right,” that “a man never loses anything 
by votin the strait ticket.” They told Jobe to “cheer 
up and git ready for the next election,” and all sich stuff. 
Jobe he come home declarin that the Republican party 
was the “grand old party” of the universe, he was so 
puffed up like. 


86 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


Last night I actually heerd him whistlin one of them 
campaign tunes, while he was a feedin of the calf. When 
the calf got all the milk out of the bucket and looked up 
at Jobe lovin like, Jobe patted him on the head and told 
him he was a nice feller and looked so knowin, like 
McKinley, that he would call him “Billy,” in honor of 
the next president. 

Jobe then started to the house a whistlin agin, when 
William came at him stiff-legged, and struck Jobe on them 
election patches I put on his pants, and knocked Jobe 
down on his hands and knees, and before Jobe could git 



up, William hit him agin, knockin him clear down. Jobe 
turned over on his back and begin to strike at McKinley 
with the bucket, sayin, “You dum rascal,” or somethin like 
that. He then clamered to his feet and took arter the calf, 
kickin as hard as he could kick. The second kick he 
missed the calf and fell. Then I hollered at him. 

He got up, put his hand on his hip and limped to the 
house. When he come in sa}^s he : 

“lie kill that dum calf if he ever acts that way agin. 
He like to a broke my hip.” 

“Why, Jobe,” says, I, “dident I jist hear you namin 


JOBE CHEERS UP. 


*7 

him for the leadinest Republican of the State? Dont you 
know he was jist a givin you a practical lesson in poler- 
ticks? Dont be mad, Jobe,” says I, “youle be a lovin him 
tomorrow with all your heart.” 

At that Jobe went into the room to git the bottle of sal- 
vation oil, mutterin somethin as he went about me not 
havin any sense. 

Now, isent it a fact that the polerticians and office- 
holders have been actin like that bull calf toward Jobe and 
his likes for years? 

Haint they been lookin into the face of the taxpayers 
pleasin like jist before every election? Haint they been 
buttin the life out of the people that feed them by 
increasin salaries, and makin taxes higher, and sellin out to 
rich trusts and sich, ever since the war? 

Haint they made law on law agin the poor and for the 
rich? 

Haint they issued bonds on top of bonds, to the rich 
people and on the poor? 

Haint they raised salary arter salary of officeholders 
when the people never asked it? 

Haint they brought us to a gold basis and made it hard 
for people to pay interest and mortgages? 

Haint they made it easy for the money-lender to foreclose 
agin the borrower? 

Haint they destroyed millions and millions of the peo- 
ple’s greenback money? 

Haint they demonitized silver? 

Haint they done everything agin the people and nothin 
for them? 

And what has the people to show for all the money they 
have destroyed, and salaries they have increased, and 
mortgages they have foreclosed, and bad laws they have 
made, but hard times and debts, and people without homes, 


88 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


and cheap wheat, and low wages, and high interest, and 
big taxes, and foreclosin, and beggin, and the Lord only 
knows what all? 

Yet Jobe and his likes will vote the strait ticket, and I 
suppose will keep a votin it until the bull calf knocks 
their brains out. 

What has Jobe and his likes got to show for all the votin 
they have voted? What, I say! 

If we can save our farm, and if we raise enough to pay 
the interest and taxes this year, and a little besides, I am 
a goin to git me a pair of them bloomers and go to workin 
and votin for more good laws and less polerticks ; and the 
fust polertician that comes around our house talkin “ party 
success” and “ party principles ” lie kick clear into the 
middle of the big road — lie do it if I split them bloomers 
from waistband to waistband in doin so. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


A NEW MORTGAGE. 

W E was that bizzy last week, with gittin our legicy 
and payin of costs, and a borrowin of money, and 
a writin of papers, and a signin of our names, and 
a swearin to this, that and the other thing, that I dident 
git my bakin done, let alone do any writin. 

The fust of last week we got our share of our legicy ; 
the officers in Indyana got the balance. 

Howsomever, what we did git come handy for a while 
anyhow. 

I dont know what we would have done if Jobe’s poor, 
dear dead aunt hadent a died jist when she did. 

Well, when what was left us, arter payin them Indyana 
fellers, come, Jobe and me hitched up old Tom and struck 
out for town to stop the foreclosin bizness. 

We fust went to the bank at Canal Dover, and made 
arrangements to borrow $1,800 at seven per cent. Jobe he 
hung for six per cent., but when the banker explained to 
Jobe that we was now on a gold basis; that McKinley had 
come out for a strait gold basis platform ; that he could 
lend all the money he could git at seven per cent, or more, 
and that all the leadin financiers and bankers, in fact all 
the leadin citizens, were in for a gold basis, Jobe he 
“saw it” and agreed to seven. 

Comin home Jobe told me he would ruther pay seven 
per cent, than six, in order to support a “sound money 
basis that “nobody believed in small interest but them 
crazy Populists and their likes.” 

89 


9 o 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



“ He would rather pay seven per cent, than six, in order to 
support a sound money basis.” 


Well, arter we arranged for the money we went to the 
court-house, and from the time we got there till I got out 
I heerd nothin but “ costs,” “costs,” “costs.” They had 
it all charged to Jobe. Not one cent was charged to Mr. 
Richer. There was the clerk’s costs, and the sheriff’s costs, 
and the auditor’s costs, and the judge’s costs, and supeena 
costs, and writ costs, and mileage costs, and the Lord only 
knows what all or who all had costs charged up agin Jobe. 
The very fellers Jobe had helped to elect had jist as big 
bills charged up as the law would allow, and some bigger, 
and nary one of them was willin to knock off a cent. We 
had to pay it or be foreclosed, and we had to take our 
legicy money to pay it with — the money that poor, dear, 
dead Aunt Jane had worked so hard to save. 

Well, when we got the costs all paid, we then begin to 
draw up papers, and sign and acknowledge, and read and 
reread of papers, to git the money from the Canal Dover 
banker. 

One feller told Jobe and the other fellers to go out of 
the room till he examined me seperate and apart, at which 
I became insulted and up and says, says I : 

“No, you wont, sir ; no man will examine me seperate and 


A NEW MORTGAGE. 


91 


apart or any other 
way in the absence 
of Jobe Gaskins.” 

“ The law re- 
quires it,” says he. 

“Law or no law,” 
says I, “ lie not 
submit. I have sub- 
mitted to law in- 
stid of justice ; Ive 
submitted to law 
instid of right ; Ive 
submitted to law 
instid of humanity, 
but when it comes 
to submittin to law 
instid of decency, Betsy Gaskins demurs.” 

But arter they explained that he jist wanted to read and 
explain the mortgage to me, I even submitted to law agin. 

When they was all out, the feller read the mortgage to 
me, and asked me if the signin of it was my “ free act and 
deed.” I told him it was so fur as I had to sign it to keep 
from bein foreclosed, but that I would not sign it as it 
then read. 

“ Whats wrong?” says he. 

“The wrong,” says I, “is where it says that Jobe shall 
pay the ‘ principal and interest in gold.’ ” 

I explained to him that Jobe and me hadent had ten 
dollars in gold for years and years. 

But he said it was only a form ; that we was now on a 
gold basis, and the bank requires all their mortgages to 
read, “payable, principal and interest, in gold,” since we 
have come to a gold basis. 

But I wouldent sign it, and the feller called Jobe and the 



‘Law or no law,’ says I.’ 


92 


A NEW MORTGAGE. 


other fellers in. Jobe he got mad at me and scolded and 
fretted around until I got ashamed of him, and I jist up 
and says, says I: 

“lie sign it, Mr. Gaskins, but you will find that payin 
seven per cent, interest and payin it in gold to keep your 
party in power is up-hill bizness.” 

So I signed it. But the Lord only knows where we will 



“ ‘Payin it in gold to keep your party in power is up-hill 
bizness.’ ” 


git the gold to pay even the interest with. We have to 
pay the interest every six months. 

Ive lived on this farm for nigh onto seventeen years, and 
have never found a piece of gold as big as a pin-head. 
Maybe Jobe knows where it is. I dont, goodness knows. 

Well, arter the signin was done there was some more 
charges and sich to pay for, and Jobe had it to pay. Then, 
arter requestin Jobe to look arter his party’s interests in 
our township, they bid us good-by, and Jobe and me 
come home. 


CHAPTER XV. 


JOBE, OUT OF TROUBLE, IS UNRULY AGAIN. 

OBE he is jist as contrary and stiff-necked as he ever 



was. He acts as though he had never went through 


•J what he has went through since last Noo Years. He 
is beginnin agin to act towards me as if I was his inferior ; 
as though it wasent me who stuck up for him and fought 
his battles in time of trouble — yes, stood by him when all 
creation, office-seekin canderdates and all, had forsook him. 

He now says the reason he did not pay off that other 
mortgage j^ears ago was because it wasent made “ payable 
in gold;” he says he believes in payin debts in “ sound 
money,” and that he now feels sorry that he dident git 
gold and pay what he did pay on it ; that he feels as 
though he has cheated Mr. Richer by payin him in green- 
backs and silver and sich. 

He says that he would ruther pay seven per cent, 
interest in gold than six per cent, interest in paper money 
or silver. 

Then he gits up and swells out his boozum, and says : 

‘‘John Sherman is the greatest financier on airth. He 
has brought us to a gold basis quicker than any other livin 
man could a done it. He has taught old Cleveland all he 
knows about sound money.” And so forth and so forth. 

He goes on in this way day in and day out until I am sick 
and tired of it. He even wants me to come out and be a 
Republican, when he knows I have been a Dimicrat for 
nigh onto thirty-five years. 

When he is tellin the neighbors about how much better 


93 


94 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR A T. 


it is to pay debts in gold, and about us a givin a “gold 
mortgage ” to the banker, he always calls it his mort- 
gage and his doins. He never even mentions my name 
when speakin of the mortgage, when he knows as well as 
I do that both the old parties, as it were, made that gold 
mortgage, and that it is “our mortgage” and “our doins” 
that made it. 

But that is the way with Jobe. As long as everything is 
goin along without trouble he wants all the glory ; but as 
soon as trouble arises he tries to blame me for gittin him 
in it, and calls on me for help. 

Now, as Betsy Gaskins, I am ashamed of that gold 
mortgage, and if I could have had my way I never would 
have signed it. Ide a dide fust. But as a Dimicrat I 
must approve it, to be in line with my party, and I think 
Jobe is mean that he dont speak of it as “our mortgage ” 
and “our doins,” when he knows the highest paid Dimi- 
crats in the land is jist as much in favor of “gold mort- 
gages ” as John Sherman or Mistur McKinley or any high-up 
Republicans are. 

Haint Mistur Carlisle, who is drawin $8,000 a year (for 
work he ort a be a doin in the money department at 
Washington), spendin lots of time makin speeches for 
gold mortgages down in Kaintuckey? 

Haint Carlisle a Dimicrat? 

Dont Mistur Cleveland set up of nites and write letters 
favorin “ gold mortgages,” and some nites like as not lets 
Mrs. Cleveland sleep all by herself? 

What more has John Sherman done, or McKinley? 

Jobe thinks because McKinley has spent all spring out- 
side of Ohio, talkin “gold mortgages” and workin to git 
elected to the best payin office in the country, that he is 
intitled to all the credit for bringin about “gold mort- 
gages.” Now, I dont believe it, though he was so bizzy 


JOBE , OUT OF TROUBLE , IS UNRULY AGAIN. 


95 


at it that he had to have his salary 
as governor sent to him by mail 
for months. 

Suppose my dream was true, 
and instid of us havin to give the 
banker a mortgage drawin seven 
per cent, interest (“ interest and 
principal payable in gold”), that 
we, that is, Jobe and me, could 
have gone to the county treasurer 
of Tuscarawas County and a bor- 
rowed the same amount of paper 
and silver money (the same kind 
we got from the bank) at two 
per cent, interest, payable in any 
money of the government. Who would it a hurt? 

Wouldent it a been better for Jobe and me? Wouldent 
we a had only $36 a year interest to pay to the county 
instid of $126 in gold to the bankers? Wouldent we a 
had more money to pay toward our home or to buy store 
goods with? 

If we could spend $90 a year for store goods that we 
now have to pay as interest, wouldent that help the store- 
keepers a little? 

Which would be the best for the storekeepers, for Jobe 
and his likes to have to pay high interest in gold, or low 
interest in any kind of good money? 

There is another question I would like to ask you. 

It is this : If the pay of the post-offices is big enough to 
pay a feller to buy them from Congressmen, and pay big 
money for them, haint it about time that the pay of such 
post-offices was cut down? 

Why is a feller’s time what is glad to clear $300 or $400 



“ ‘John Sherman is the great- 
est financier on airth.’ ” 


g6 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


a year doin anything else worth $1,500 or $2,000 for keepin 
the post-office? 

Does it hurt their character so much? And why is it 
that all them fellers what sells post-offices, and most of them 
what buys em, favor a gold basis and gold mortgages 
and sich? 

Are they afraid they will have to go back to their old 
jobs and less pay if they dont holler as the big fellers 
holler? 



CHAPTER XVI. 


JOBE IS SCARED. 

J OBE he is in a critical condition. Day before yisterday, 
when Jake Stiffler brought our mail out from town — 
it consisted of the two noosepapers that we have took 
for years, that is, the Ohio Dimicrat and the Tuscarawas 
Advercate — I played a trick on Jobe that nearly cost him 
his life, and nearly made me a weepin and mournin widder. 

For years and years we have took them two “ stanch 
and substantial ” noosepapers without ceasin. We have 
took them simply because one was a Dimicrat paper and 
the other a Republican. We have took them when payin 
for them kept me from gittin a new dress or Jobe a change 
of pants. 

We have took them though durin all them years they 
have said the same things over and over agin, aginst each 
other and aginst the party they wasent, jist at the time, 
gittin any campaign money or county printin from. 

The Dimicrat has allers called the Republicans rascals 
and sich, and the Advercate never fails to show how the 
Dimicrats are worse still. 

Always, when the Advercate comes, Jobe he sets down 
and reads out loud all the abuse agin the Dimicrats ; then, 
lookin over his specks at me, says : 

“Now, Betsy, you see what kind of a party you belong 
to. You see now what kind of leaders youve got,” &c., &c. 

Its a regular thing for Jobe to read the same things 
week arter week and then to criticise me and the Dimicrat 
party time arter time, until for years Ive been in the 

97 


9 « 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



“‘Now, Betsy, you see what kind of a party you belong to.’ ” 


habit of goin in and settin down and a listenin to Jobe 
read the Advercate's abuse of the Dimicrats, and a waitin 
for my regular weekly tongue-lashin, Ive done it jist for 
the good it seems to do Jobe. 

Sometimes to answer him I jist read from the Ohio 
Di?nicrat the same things he has read from the Advercate — 
only where the Advercate says “the Dimicrat party,” the 
Dimicrat says “the Republican party.” 

Then Jobe will flare up and say : 

“The Ohio Dimicrat is a dum dirty sheet, and full of lies.” 

He knows that I dont swear and wont say that 
about his Advercate , even if I know it is the same kind of a 
paper as the Ohio Dimicrat is, except in the name at the 
top of the fust page. Of course it gits its campaign money 
and public printin from the office-seekin canderdate fellers 
of the other party. 

Now, when Jake brought them papers, I happened to 
pick up the Advercate (a thing I seldom do), and one of 


JOBE IS SCARED. 


99 


the fust things I read was a article a praisin Mr. Cleve- 
land for workin to git a “gold basis” and “gold mort- 
gages ” and sich. I was so surprised to find a word of praise 
for a Dimicrat president in a Republican noosepaper that I 
looked twice at the headin to make sure it was the Adver- 
cate I had instid of the Dimicrat. Sure enough it was the 
Advercate , but I dont want you to blame Editure Mcllvaine 
for sich a article appearin in his paper. He couldent help 
it. It was in that part of his paper that he dont print. 
It was in the patent part what is printed in Cleveland — 
the part, you know, which them fellers down east, the 
fellers what gits rich by havin on this gold basis bizness, 
pays to have in all papers, Dimicrat, Republican, Method- 
ist, Prisbyterian or any other kind except them howlin 
Populist papers. Them Populists seem to be so sot agin 
that “gold basis,” and a “ contractin of the money to 
make it scarce and hard to git,” that they wont put any- 
thing a favorin the “gold basis” in their papers for love 
or money. They are jist that mean. 

So I dont want you to blame Mr. Mcllvaine or any other 
feller for sich articles a bein in their papers. They cant 
help it. They jist have to do it or lose their rich money- 
lendin friends. 

But the feelin I felt when I seed sich a article in a 
Republican noosepaper prompted me to do the thing that, 
as I said afore, nearly made me a weepin widder. 

I jist thought Ide have some fun with Jobe. 

So I went to work and cut the headin off from last week’s 
Tuscarawas Advercate and pasted it over the headin of this 
week’s Ohio Dimicrat. Then I cut the headin out of last 
week’s Ohio Diviicrat and pasted it on this week’s Advercate. 
I then folded the papers up nice like and laid them on the 
table in the settin-room, where I had laid them week arter 
week for near onto fifteen years. 


TOO 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


Arter supper, when 
Jobe had his chores all 
done up, he says, as he 
come in from the barn : 

“ Betsy, has the mail 
come?” 

A question that he 
has asked about that 
hour, on that same day 
of the week, fifty-two 
times a year for these 
many years. The mail 
alluded to meanin the 
Tuscarawas Advercate. 
I told Jobe, as usual, 
that it was in on the 
table. He took his 
specks down off the 
kitchen mantel, and, 
wipin them as he went 
on the corner of his coat tail, approached the table. 

He sot down, rared back in his split-bottom rockin cheer, 
put his feet on another, then picked up the Ohio Dimicrat 
(with its name changed), and begin to read, as he expected, 
Editure Mcllvaine’s slaughter of Dimocracy. 

It started out with : 

“There never was a more corrupt gang in control of any 
State government than the Republican boodlers at 
Columbus.” 

Then : 

“Every Republican officeholder in this county seems to 
exist for no other purpose than to suck the life-blood out 
of our hard-working tax-payers. We must turn the rascals 
out.” 

And so on and so on, clear through the paper. Jobe he 



So I went to work and cut out the 
headin.” 


It is all over, Betsy,’ says he. 



ioi 






102 


BETSY GASKINS, DiMICRAT 


read a minit or so ; then looked at the name of the paper ; 
then read another item ; looked at the top of his paper 
agin ; took off his specks ; rubbed them hard ; put them on 
and read, or started to read, another item ; laid the paper 
down ; got up and went to the lookin glass ; stuck out his 
tongue and shook his head in a troubled manner ; then 
he felt his pulse, shook his head agin and fell over on the 
lounge that was near him. He groaned once or twice, then 
hollered, ‘‘Betsy, Betsy!” dyin like. 

I went a hurryin in. There he laid as white as a ghost, 
and drawin short, quick breaths. 

“Why, Jobe, dear,” says I, pleadin like, “ what on 
airth is the matter?” 

“ It is all over, Betsy,” says he, “all over ; Ime a goin 
to die. The end is near. Betsy, Ive tried to be a good 
husband, but at times I know Ive been a little cross and 
contrary. Betsy, I want to hear you say you forgive me 
before I go.” 

“Why, Jobe,” says I, “ what in the world is the matter?” 

“ Oh, Betsy,” says he, “ the end is near. I know it is. 
Editure Mcllvaine is changed, or my mind is shattered. 
My mind is so onbalanced that I can no longer read my 
paper and understand it, or the leopard has changed his 
spots. Betsy, its me. It must be me, for where my paper 
has been praisin, it is now abusin ; and where it has been 
abusin, it is now praisin. Betsy, I want to die. I want 
to die a believin that its me and not the Advercate that 
has changed. You must do the best you can, Betsy ; and 
if you marry agin arter Ime gone, remember my last wish 
is that you do not marry one of them wild Populists. 
Betsy, will you promis?” says he. 

At that I began to laf out loud, as hard as I could laf. 

“Oh my! oh my!” says Jobe. “ Is my wife crazy or do 
my eyes deceive me agin?” 


JOBE IS SCARED. 


103 


I took holt of him and jerked him off the lounge, sayin : 

“Here! git up and have some sense. That is all the 
truth you read in your paper to-nite. The office-seekers 
of both parties are corrupt, and if the papers were 
honest they would say so. Neither of them dare tell 
how the people have been betrayed, and so they fill up 



“That nite he slept in the barn.” 

their columns with abusin the party they dont happen to 
belong to.” 

Then I explained what I had done, and he jumped to his 
feet and swore awfully. That nite he slept in the barn, and 
for the second time in her married life Betsy Gaskins slept 
alone. Jobe is still critical and sleepin in the barn. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


JOBE SLEEPS IN THE BARN. 

I F Ide a knode that Ide a had to went through what Ive 
went through since I last writ, I would have been a 
old maid longin for some one to love, and some one 
to love me in return, instid of bein the tormented wife of 
Jobe Gaskins, Esquire, as I am to-day. 

From the time Jobe come in from the barn, the next 
mornin arter nearly dyin over the Adver cate's change of 
abuse, to this hour, the two old parties has been on the 
outs ; and instid of gittin better, things are gittin wuss. 
The Lord only knows what it will lead to. I dont. 

That mornin, about breakfast time, he come a bouncin 
into the house all of a suddent, while I was a puttin some 
corn cakes in the skillet, and, shakin his fist in my face, 
says, says he : 

“Betsy Gaskins, youve got to take it back. Take it 
back or lie — lie smash you,” makin a motion towards me, 
and, with his hair all mussed up and full of hay-seed, he 
looked dangerful. 

I jist drawed back the dipper what I was puttin batter 
in the skillet with, sayin : 

“Jobe Gaskins, you make another move towards me, or 
attempt to strike me, and He knock you so cold youle never 
vote for another Republican office-seeker.” 

I was a loolcin at him all the time with the dipper drawed. 
He seen I meant jist what I said ; so he walked over and 
sot down on the edge of the wood-box. Continerin, says I : 
“You are a purty-lookin feller, haint you? Thats as 

104 





io6 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT, 


much sense as you and your likes has got. You would 
strike down the pardner of your life rather than listen to 
the truth about the rascality of the men who run your 
party.” 

I had the dipper drawed all the time, and had stepped 
nearer to him. 

‘ * Betsy,” says he, pleadin like, “tell jist one dishonest 
thing a Republican officer ever done.” 

Says I : “Now, Jobe, you are actin with sense. Where 
do you want me to begin, at the top among the big ones, 
or at the bottom among the little ones?” 

“Begin at the bottom, Betsy, at the bottom,” says he. 

“Well, Jobe,” says I, “you listen, and I will keep at 
the cakes or they will burn.” 

Thinkin a minit, says I : 

“Fust, there is the county commissioners.” 

“Hold!” says Jobe, jumpin to his feet, “dont lets go 
into that commissioner bizness ” 

I turned right square in front of him, and drawin the 
dipper, says I : 

“Now, sir, you set down, and set there till I tell you to 
git up.” 

Jobe sot down. 

Says I agin : 

“Fust, there is the county commissioners and the 
bridges ” 

“Betsy ” says Jobe, conquered like. 

“Jobe!” says I, and I looked a look at him that made 
him drop his head. 

Then proceedin agin, says I : 

“Fust, there is the county commissioners, the bridges 
and iron tubes.” 

Jobe flipped his thumb and fingers, and held up his hand 
like they do in school. 


JOBE SLEEPS IN THE BARN 


107 


Says I : “ Whats you want?” cross like. 

“ Betsy, if you are a goin into that bridge bizness, with 
them iron tubes and all, I would like to have my say as 
well as you,” says he. 

4 1 That depends,” says I. “If you act with sense and 
dont git mad, you can have your say. If you flare up lie 
silence you, sir.” 

“Are you mad, Betsy?” says he, cowed like. 

“No, Ime not mad. Ime in airnest,” says I, takin up 
the cakes and settin them on the table. Then I sot down 
in a chair in front of Jobe, still holdin the dipper. Says I : 

“Now, Jobe, who is agent for a iron bridge company in 
this county but a Republican county commissioner? 

“Who went over into a adjoining county and offered to 
sell a iron bridge for several dollars per foot less than 
he charged his own county for the same kind of a 
bridge? Who done this but a Republican county com- 
missioner? 

“Who let a contract for stone butments for one of the 
leadin bridges in this county, and then let them putin iron 
tubes instid of stone butments? Who done this but a 
Republican county commissioner? 

“Who sold the Trenton bridge out in three sections at 
$999.99 a section, so as to evade the law that says all 
public contracts for $1,000 or more shall be advertised 
and sold to the lowest bidder? Who done this sellin but 
a Republican county commissioner? 

“Who gits a commission on all the bridges the tax- 
payers are a payin for, but a Republican county com- 
missioner? 

“Who has tore down good bridges jist to git to sell a 
new bridge to this county, but a Republican county com- 
missioner? 

“Who is it but Republican county commissioners that 


io8 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



“ ‘Are you mad, Betsy?’ says he.” 


dont care how high taxes are so they git their commission 
for sellin bridges? 

“Who but a Republican county commissioner refused 
to allow the expense necessary to collect the $65,000 back 
taxes, Beriar Wilk ?” 

“Hold! Hold!” cried Jobe, jumpin to his feet. “Wilkins 
was a Dimicrat! Wilkins was a Dimicrat! A leadin Dimi- 
crat, and you know it! And more, Betsy Gaskins, when 
you say that nobody was mixed up in that bridge bizness 
but a Republican county commissioner, you lie , and ” 

I dident let him finish. I couldent. I was teched. I 
jist grabbed the mop-stick that was standin near, and struck 
at him with all my might as he went out at the door. I 
follered him clear to the fence, strikin at him as he went ; 
and jist as he was crossin the fence I broke that mop-stick 


JOBE SLEEPS IN THE BARN. IO 9 

(that cost me thirteen cents) on them election patches. 

So my heart is heavier than it has been since I become 
the lawful wife of Jobe Gaskins. 

The idea of him a tellin me that I lie , this late in our 
lives! It is awful! It teched me to the quick! Well, Jobe 
Gaskins got no breakfast that day, and I was so worked 
up that I couldent eat much. 

That nite Jobe slept in the barn agin, comin in some 
time between dark and daylite to get what vittles was 
cooked. 

He stayed out around the barn for three days and nites, 
only comin in arter I had gone to bed, to git what he 
needed to eat. I dont know how long he would have kept 
it up if it hadent got cold Thursday arternoon and evenin. 
That evenin he froze out, and came up to the fence and 
hollered : 

“Hello!” 

I went to the door, and says : 

“Hello, sir! What you want?” 

“Betsy,” says he, “I would like for you to let me come 
in and lay by the cookin stove to-nite.” 

Says I : “If you wasent so set in your ways and insultin, 
you could a been sleepin in your usual place, by my side, 
all these nites. Come in,” says I, “ and keep your mouth 
shet, and all will be well.” 

He come in, and I set him a good warm supper. He 
eat three bowlsful of corn mush, and drunk two big cups 
of hot coffee. 

Now, I intend to git all the names and facts about that 
bridge bizness, and that Beriar Wilkins back tax bizness, 
and them commissioners, and lie convince Jobe that all 
his high-toned Republican officeholders are arter is the 
chance to get rich off from the people’s money. lie do it 
if it costs me a divorce suit to do it. 


no 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


That nite Jobe went to bed fust. When I went in I 
found that he had got in with his head to the foot. He 
thought it would spite me, I spose. But it dident. I 
laffed and jist stood there and looked at him, and while I 
was a lookin I couldent help thinkin how much he rep- 
resented his party on the money question. You know how 
they use to claim that they was the party what believed in 
lots of greenback money, and how they pinted with pride 
to the great amount of greenbacks they had given the 
people to do bizness with. Now they are turned end 
about, jist like Jobe. Now they claim they are for “gold 
only,” that “lots of greenbacks haint good for the people.” 
They are a sayin now agin silver and paper money jist 
what Vallandingham and his likes said about greenbacks. 
But then this is about the top fellers. So I wont discuss 
this any more until I git the facts about them bottom 
fellers — about the county commissioners and auditor and 
prosecutin attorney and Beriar Wilkins, and lots of sich 
things that is done and bein done all over this country, 
lie git enough to drive Jobe clear under the bed, if I can 
hold him down to listen to it. 

Jobe says he is a goin to git the facts agin the Dimicrats 
if he has to subscribe for every Republican noosepaper in 
the county. Now I dont think he need to go to all that 
expense, because so fur as I can see they are all alike and 
run for the same purpose — for the purpose of keepin the 
Republican voters in line. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


THE SPITTOONS. 

C OULD you tell a feller where he could borrow a little 
money to pay taxes with? Here it is June, and 
taxes are due agin — bridge taxes and all — and Jobe 
lacks $22.69 of havin enough to pay his share. 

Taxes seem to stay up better than anything else. They 
really seem to be on the rise. 

I wonder if a feller could borrow that much money from 
them county commissioners? They git their pay when 
they sell a bridge to the taxpayers — cut-worms or no cut- 
worms. 

Them commissioners ort a have a little spare change by 
them, when they git pay from the people of the county for 
buyin bridges and pay from the bridge companies for sellin 
bridges. 

Ime a hearin a good deal about that bridge bizness. 
About them iron tubes that we paid the same for as stone 
butments would a cost, and that sellin out of the Trenton 
bridge in pieces privately, so that it would bring more 
“commission,” and of them contractors that come down 
here and got paid for not biddin on another job, and all 
them things, and Ime a layin low for Jobe so that the next 
time he lites into me lie pulverize him. 

He’s been quiet for a day or two. He’s been out a tryin 
to borrow tax money, workin on the “gold basis,” as it 
were. 

He ginerally is quiet durin tryin times. He dont know 
what minit he may need my help. 

in 


1 1 2 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 


This tax bizness is a deep question, and seems to be a 
gittin deeper. How does it come that a feller what has a 
farm, and owes for it, has to pay the same tax as he would 
if he had it all paid for? 

Now, here is Jobe and me. We have this farm, that 
haint worth more nor $2,500; we owe $1,800 gold mort- 
gage on it. So we own $700 of its worth, and the banker 
what holds the mortgage owns the balance. We have to 
pay $51.80 a year tax on it. That is, we pay $51.80 tax on 
$700 we own. Haint that over seven per cent, tax on all 
we are worth? Now, if the banker is permitted to deduct 
his debts from his tax list, and the storekeeper and man- 
ufacturer is allowed to deduct their debts from their tax 
list, why haint the law-makers what Jobe and his likes has 
been electin to office made laws to allow the farmer to 
deduct his debts from his tax list? Why haint they, I say? 
Haint a voter what farms for a livin jist as good a citizen, 
jist as much entitled to the benefit of laws as the fellers 
are what lends money for a livin, or what sells store goods, 
or gits rich by makin things to sell to the farmers and sicli? 

If we only had to pay taxes on what we have paid on this 
farm, on what we have over our debts, we wouldent have 
to borrow any tax money this June. If anybody but them 
crazy Populists would offer to make sich a law, I believe I 
could git Jobe to vote for it. But them Populists are 
pizen to Jobe. 

He is so swelled up and elated over the county offices 
bein filled with Republican officeseekers instid of Dimi- 
crats, that I dont suppose he will ever vote any other 
ticket, even if doin so would put him out of debt or bring 
down taxes and interest and sich. 

The second nite arter the cold weather drove Jobe in 
from the haymow to the comfortable bed of his lawful wife, 
I had a experience He never forgit. 


Jobe was on his knees in the middle of the bed. 



<LO 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


114 

We had gone to bed about the usual hour, and as neither 
was very sleepy we fell to talkin. 

I had tried to avoid anything of a perlitical natur since 
that tryin mornin in the kitchen, and Jobe had got along 
with givin me a slur now and then. 

Well, arter we had laid there some time we got onto the 
question of taxes, and I onthoughtedly said : 

“Jobe, why couldent there be a law to make interest 
less and taxes lower? 

“What good does it do you and your likes to vote the 
same party ticket year arter year, when you see they dont 
do anything to make things easier for you — when you 
know, or ort a know, that the men what runs your party 
only work for the money they can git out of the taxes you 
pay? 

“What difference is it to you what party has the offices? 
Better laws is what you ort a look to. 

“What satisfaction is it to you to have the Republicans 
in, anyhow?” 

I hadent that last question out of my mouth until Jobe 
was up on his knees in the middle of the bed, layin it off 
with both hands. The moon shinin in through the winder 
made him look like a ghost, with his long gray whiskers 
and nothin on but his shirt. 

“Satisfaction! satisfaction!” says he, loud and quick. 
“Betsy Gaskins, for forty odd years Ive been goin to that 
air court-house and have had to pay my taxes to Dimi- 
crats — copperheads, if you please, rebels! — and do you 
suppose its no satisfaction for me to go there now and see 
a Republican in every office? Betsy, it was the happiest 
day of my life when George Sharp told me that the last 
office in that air court-house was filled by a Republican. 
Even the janitor, Betsy, is a Republican. Yes, sir, the 
janitor is a prominent Republican. Satisfaction! Do you 


THE SPITTOONS . 


115 


suppose it is no satisfaction 
for me to go into that court- 
house and see a influential 
Republican cleanin them big 
spittoons and a sweepin of 
that stone floor? Do you 
suppose that when I spit in 
one of them large vessels, or 
throw a chaw of terbacker in 
one of them, that it does not 
give me more satisfaction to 
know that that terbacker 
what has been in the mouth 
of Jobe Gaskins will be 
handled and wiped out of 
that spittoon by a promi- 
nent, influential Republican 
than if a copperhead Dimi- 
crat was to do it? Satisfaction! Betsy, you women dont 
know what real perlitical satisfaction and enjoyment is — 
thats one reason you haint got sense enough to vote. 

“Do you suppose that Ive been a votin the Republican 
ticket all these years for nothin? No, sir. 

“ If the Republicans hadent a turned out the Dimicrat 
what was janitor, and appinted a tried and true Repub- 
lican in his place, I wouldent a gone to the next election. 
Jist to think of all them court-house offices bein filled by 
Republicans — janitor and all — is enough to make any true 
Republican farmer rejoice.” 

Durin all this time I jist laid there and let him talk. 
Finally he laid down, and, thinkin I was asleep, he muttered 
a few things to himself and went to sleep too. 

Poor Jobe! If I had a knode it would be sich great 
enjoyment to him and his likes to knock the Dimicrats out 



“A strait, influential, leadin Re- 
publican officeholder.’ ’ 


n6 


BETSY GASKINS , , DIMICRAT. 


of that court- 
house, Ide a been 
in favor of it long 
ago. I would, 
though I m e a 
Dimicrat. 

Jobe says you 
can find lots of 
fellers, jist like 
him, s t a n d i n 
around the court- 
house nowdays, 
chawin terbacker 
and talkin poler- 
ticks, jist to git 
to spit in them 
big spittoons and 
“Lots of fellows just like him. to j^yg the satis- 

faction of knowin that it will be cleaned out by a strait, 
influential, leadin Republican officeholder. 

Well, all Ive got to say is to let them enjoy their 
satisfaction while they can, for that is about all they git 
for the taxes they pay and the vote they vote and have 
been a votin for years. 

Ime glad they have spittoons in that court-house. If 
they hadent, what would Jobe and his likes git for votin the 
strait ticket? What would they git, I say? 

Susan Swaller is a goin over into Harrison County next 
week to visit her aunt, and Ime a goin along. 

While Ime over there Ime a goin to find out more about 
the county commissioners of our county offerin to sell that 
county a bridge for much less money than they charged 



THE SPITTOONS. 


117 

this county for the same kind of a bridge. If what I hear 
is true, lie give Jobe names and dates and prices that 
will make him stand clear up in bed next time, moonlite 
or no moonlite, shirt or no shirt. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


A BIG-HEADED MAN, 


OBE and me are livin under a flag of truce. I went 



down into the adjoinin county to find out which one 


%) of our county commissioners is the bridge agent, and 
by what I could hear it was Commissioner Westholt what 
was down there, but it seems they are all agents or kind a 
pardners in the 4 ‘commission ” bizness. 

When I got home I up and told Jobe that it was one of 
the Republican commissioners — givin his name. Jobe he 
flew up and claimed he knew better; that Commissioner 
Westholt is a Dimicrat, for he had been inquirin too. 

Jobe said that it was purty hard to find anything out 
about it, as all the court-house fellers thought it would be 
better not to let it git out. 

Jobe says they told him that it wasent anything onusual 
for a county officer to make all he could while he had a 
chance, and as a differeuce of $400 or $500 on a bridge was 
only a little thing to each tax-payer, they hadent ort to 
know much about it, as they might git to talkin about it and 
hurt the party. 

And Jobe says they told him on the quiet that the Dimi- 
crat commissioner was the bridge agent now, but jist as 
soon as his time was out a Republican would come in, and 
a commissioner of his own party would git the job of 
lookin arter the bridge company’s interests in this county. 

This seemed to satisfy Jobe, so he proposed to me that 
if I would say nothin more about it he wouldent until they 
can git a full board of Republicans in. 


A BIG-HEADED MAH. 


119 


And as there seems to be some 
doubt as to which one is agent 
now , that Dimicrat or one of the 
Republicans, I agreed to postpone 
further argament on the subject 
until that pint was settled. 

I would like to know which one 
is it now. 

If it is the Republican, and not 
the Dimicrat, Jobe will ketch it. 

If it is the Dimicrat, and not a 
Republican, I expect lie have to 
lay low. 

But let it be Republican or 
Dimicrat, either or both, it seems 
to me that a man must have a big 
head for bizness that is able to be 
the buyer and seller of a thing at 
the same time. It seems to me 
he would git “mixed in the deal.” 

As county commissioner he takes an oath to buy the 
things for the county as cheap as he can git them. As 
agent of the bridge company he would want to sell a 
bridge for as high price as possible, so that his commission 
would be big. 

Wouldent you like to see him a argyin with himself, fust 
as buyer, then as salesman? 

But then, Jobe says, “they work the office for all there 
is in it. ” 

Now, if Mistur Republican or Dimicrat, as the case may 
be, as county commissioner, gits his salary from the tax- 
payers, whether he buys a bridge at a high figger or a low 
figger, dont you suppose he lets himself, as bridge agent, 
work himself, as county commissioner, for a little bigger 



“ Jobe he flew up. 


120 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


price for a bridge than he would let himself, as county 
commissioner, be worked for if somebody else was bridge 
agent, especially when the pay for sellin bridges depends 
on the price you sell them for? 

I cant see what Jobe and his likes expect to git out of 
that way of runnin bizness. 

But then there are the spittoons. 



CHAPTER XX. 


“BONDS SELL WELL. 



OBE haint got that tax money yit. Times seem awful 


hard. But Jobe says they jist seem that way; they 


J haint hard at all. “Times are never hard under a 
gold basis,” Jobe says. 

Jobe was a argyin last nite that “ times is better than 
they was jist arter the war.” 

Says he: “ Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so long as 
bonds sells well?” 

Now, I dont know. Maybe we had. 

But Jobe and me have been a keepin house for nigh onto 



“ ‘ Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so long as bonds sells well?’ ” 

thirty-six years, and of all the crops we have raised to try to 
make a livin at, Ive never seen Jobe plant a single govern- 
ment bond at seed-time nor harvest one at harvest time ; 
so whether government bonds bring high prices or low, 
good prices or bad, I cant see what benefit it is to Jobe and 
his likes so long as they haint got any to sell. And if govern- 


I 2 1 


122 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


ment bonds are like 
bridge bonds, I think the 
lower they are, and the 
fewer of them that are 
sold, the better it will be 
for him and his likes. 

I guess it is really so 
that them iron tubes 
under the Dover bridge 
cost the taxpayers of this 
county jist what stone 
butments would a cost. 

I hear the contract was 
fust let for stone but- 
ments, and then the same 
contractors persuaded 
the county commission- 
ers, “by word of mouth 
or otherwise, ” to let them 
put in them little iron 
tubes, and was paid the 
same pay as if they had 
put in stone butments. 

They dont do things 
that way down in Penn- 
sylvania. My aun t J ane’s 
son Charles is a workin 
down there. He sent me a paper from his town, and 
here is the way they do it down in that State: 



Times are never hard under a gold 
basis,’ Jobe says.” 


“Court Wouldn’t Release Them. 

“ Hollidaysburg, Pa., June 24. — TheBlair County Court, 
this afternoon, declined to order the release from custody 
of County Commissioners John Hurd and James Funk on 
a writ of habeas corpus . The accused officials were required 


“ BONDS SELL WELL” 


123 


to furnish bail in three different prosecutions for malfeasance 
in office. The grand jury reported to court this afternoon 
that the two commissioners had unlawfully let two impor- 
tant bridge contracts to the Groton Bridge Company at a 
loss to the county of $1,490. The jury requested that the 
court interpose its power to prevent such loss.” 

You notice that it would be dangerful for county com- 
missioners to let a bridge contract, like the Trenton bridge, 
contrary to law, without advertisin, if they were down in 
that State. 

Jobe liasent time to discuss this bridge question now, 
nor wont have till arter tax-borrowin time is over. He is 
bizzy. 



CHAPTER XXL 


THE SERMON. 

I GUESS Jobe and me are goners. Jobe is nearly 
broken-hearted, and I feel kind a faint like. We will 
have to go to hell. Our preacher says so. 

Last Sunday Jobe wanted me to go to meetin. I said 
Ide go. So I jist put on that hat I got from Jane Sum- 
mers, and the blue cambric dress I have wore now for 
some three years, and we hitched poor old crippled Tom 
to the spring wagon and we went. 

We tied Tom under a shade tree jist outside of town 
and walked in. 

They was singin when we got there. As we walked up 
the ile of that big Methodist church, crowded full of 
leadin men and women, they pinted and whispered and 
snickered at my straw hat and Jobe’s linen coat, with a 
muslin patch on the sleeve, till I was really ashamed of 
some of them. High-toned people do sometimes act so 
silly that its shockin. 

Well, the preacher took a hard text to preach from. 

It was about Jesus tellin a young feller “to go sell all 
he had and give it to the poor.” 

I thought the preacher had his foot in it the minit he 
read that text. 

But then he got out of it in a way that cast a gloom over 
Jobe and me. He went on to explain that Jesus dident 
mean what he said ; that he was jist a jokin with the feller. 

He said Jesus wanted to make a preacher out of the 
young man, and he told him that jist to try him ; but when 

124 


THE SERMON. 


125 



“They whispered and snickered at my straw hat and Jobe’s 
linen coat.” 


he told him to do that the young feller went off sorry and 
dident go to preachin. 

I jist thought if that was what Jesus intended to do and 
why he told him that, Jesus was a poor judge of timber to 
make a preacher out of. 

Then the preacher went on to show that the young feller 
Jesus failed to make a preacher out of was the only one 
he meant should give anything to the poor; that he dident 
mean anybody in that Methodist meetin-house ; that they 
and everybody else could git all they could and keep all 


126 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRA T. 



He said the rich all belong to church.’ 


they can git; that the 
more they git and the 
less they give to the 
poor the surer they 
would be of gittin to 
heaven. 

He said the rich all 
belong to church and 
were good; that that 
was the reason they 
were rich — because 
God loved them and 
prospered them ; that 
God had made them 
his bankers, and they 
were his bankers. 

Well, when he said 
all that I jist felt gone 
like. 

I looked at Jobe, 
and he was as pale as 
a ghost. He was 
skeert. 

We both felt that 
Lord 


we were doomed to eternal torment, because the 
knows he hasent prospered us. 

We are old and poor. If riches is evidence that God 
favors the rich, and that they are good, and that He will 
take them to heaven because they are rich, to be poor 
is a sign that God does not favor the poor, and that they 
are bad and will go to hell. 

We have worked hard, Jobe and me. 

We have plowed and sowed and rept ; we have labored 
in sunshine and in rain ; we have paid interest on interest, 


THE SERMON. 


127 


taxes on taxes ; we have caught bushels of pertater bugs and 
killed thousands of cut-worms, tryin to git rich and thus 
gain the favor of the church and reach the kingdom of 
heaven. 

We have picked the lice from spring calves and buried 
many a sheep that died of the rot, tryin to gain the praises 
of the preachers and the world and git on equal footin, in 
the race for eternal bliss, with the fellers who live on 
interest and rent and taxes and dividends and sich, and in 
all our efforts we have failed. So now in our old age, with 
late frosts in the spring and airly frosts in the fall, with 
drouth when it ort to be wet, and wet when it ort to be 
dry, I can see no chance to gain the praises of the church 
and the necessary qualification for God’s favor this late in 
our lives. 

Feelin this way, I can see nothin for us to do but to 
work day and nite to pay interest and taxes, so as to help 
the money-lenders, monopolists and officeholders git there. 

Its bad, but I suppose it must be that way. The 
preacher knows. 

Jobe has been buildin great hopes on havin it easier in 
the hereafter. His hopes are blasted. It looks now as 
though he would not have the pleasure of even votin the 
strait ticket in the great beyond. 

Poor Jobe! Its a great disappintment to him. 

But whats to be done? 

He will jist have to submit. He cant help it. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


JOBE HELPING TO RAISE THE OFFICERS’ SALARIES. 

J OBE has been a helpin Hen Minick cut wheat and 
harvest for a week past, and the poor man has big 
blisters in his hand and cracks and sores on his fingers 
that jist keep me busy a pickin and a salvin and a doc- 
torin. And he is that stiff he can hardly walk. 

He has been workin to git money to pay taxes with. 
When he got done Hen told him he would have to wait 
till arter thrashin time for the $7.50 he owes him for 
helpin. 

Jobe told him he would have to have it right away, as 
his taxes was past due, and if he dident pay them soon 
they would attach a penalty to them. Hen said he was 
sorry, but he dident have a dollar, nor haint had for 
weeks. 

Jobe come home discouraged like. 

How can he git it from Hen when Hen haint got it? 

If Jobe sues him, Hen will git mad and git somebodj' 
else to do his harvestin next time. 

Besides, Hen is honest and would pay if he had it. He 
is a good nabor and worth it, but Hen says times is hard 
and money scarce. 

When I was a puttin salve on Jobe’s hands last nite I 
jist thought : 

* * Here is the same hand that has been puttin tickets in 
the box for thirty years or more to help elect the law- 
makers who made laws to lend money to national bankers 
at one per cent.; laws to issue bonds to git the paper 

128 



Harvesting. 


zap 



BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR A T. 


130 



money of the country 
to burn ; laws to de- 
monitize silver; laws 
to make money scarce 
and times hard ; laws 
to enable the rich to 
live off the poor. And 
here that hand is sore 
and full of cracks and 
pain — yes, the same 
hand that has helped 
to elect the county 
officers of this county 
— full of blisters and 
scabs, made so a 
workin to git money 
to help pay them 
“ 1 was P“ t,in salve on Jobe ’ s hands ” officeholders their 
salaries — salaries of thousands of dollars a year — and they 
ready to add to that tax and sell our home in order to 
git them big salaries if Jobe dident pay his sheer.” 

There is the probate judge, who gits $5,300 a year; and 
the county clerk, who gits $5,500; and the recorder, who 
gits $3,600; and the sheriff, who gits $3,900; and the 
treasurer, who gits $3,400 ; and the auditor, who gits 
$ 3 > 5 °°) and the prosecutin attorney, who gits $1,600; 
and the county commissioners, who git $1,400 apiece. 
And they git it from Jobe and his likes, who dont make 
$500 a year, even when seasons are favorable and crops 
good. And they are gittin of them big salaries by the 
votes of Jobe and his likes, who has them to pay — yes, by 
the votes of the very fellers who are a blisterin their hands 
and a rubbin salve and a walkin stiff to pay them. 

Now if them salaries were reduced to what them same 


JOBE HELPING TO RAISE SALARIES. 


131 

men would be willin to work for at anything else — if them 
salaries were reduced to $600 for commissioners and $1,500 
for probate judge, auditor and sich, I wonder if it wouldent 
take less blisters and briars and cracks and backaches to 
pay them to do the people’s work. 

Any of them would be willin to do the same work for 
them figgers, if the people would git together and, instid 



The hand that voted “the strait ticket.” 


of votin for officeseekers, vote for men who would make a 
law to only pay sich figgers for public work. 

Is it any wonder they want to hold Jobe and his likes in 
line? 

All Ive got to say is : If Jobe and his likes would rather 
have sore hands and stiff backs, if they would rather rub 
salve and pick briars than to quit votin the “ strait ticket,” 
let them have them. Let them pick and rub. 

This strait ticket bizness is increasin the demand for St. 
Jacob’s oil and Green Mountain salve and sich alarminly. 

But as they are great on the 4 ‘home market” scheme, I 
suppose they are satisfied, and I ort to be. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


PLAN TO RELIEVE THE RICH OF AN EXPENSE. 

O N the fust page of last Tuesday’s Plain Dealer there 
is a article that has caused me to have a great deal 
of thought. 

It is about Captain Fred W. Lawrence of Company B, 
of the Standin Army of Ohio, a writin to the coal opera- 
tors, and railroad officers, and monopolists, and bankers, 
and rich speculators of Cleveland, askin them to give 
somethin toward supportin said army. 

He says he wants to git ‘‘good men in the militia — men 
who can be depended on to do their duty in case of labor 
trouble .” 

Now, Fred dont want any common scrubs in his company. 
He needs money to hire the kind of men he wants — “men 
who will do their duty in case of labor trouble.” 

Now what is the “duty” of sich men? 

What does Fred want them to do to the “ laborin 
people ” ? 

Haint it the “duty” of good men belongin to a army, 
like Fred, to shoot? 

Judge Hutchins and Judge Blandin and some of the 
other polerticians say Fred hadent ort to a writ that letter, 
or, if he wanted to write it, he hadent ort to a writ it in 
that way, because now it is out what the militia is for. 

The militia is to shoot laborin men with. 

They are afraid some of the laborin people will begin to 
ask themselves what they are votin the strait ticket for. 
Fred says he jist copied that letter from the ones his 

132 









f 


“Some good men in case of labor trouble.” 


133 












134 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM ICR A T. 


predecessors in office have been sendin out to these rich 
people for years. 

Now what is botherin me is how to save them coal opera- 
tors, and railroad owners, and monopolists, and rich stock- 
holders in monopolies, from havin to pay toward sich things 
as “keepin up the militia.” 

They are leadin citizens and own the coal fields, and 
railroads, and banks, and trusts, and sich. They are rich, 
and everything should be done to make it easy for them to 
git along in the world without trouble. 

If there were no laborin men there wouldent be any need 
of “keepin up the militia.” 

So if the militia is to be used only to quiet the people 
who labor, the best thing I know of is to get rid of the 
laborin people. 

They seem to be a kind of unwelcome creatures in this 
world anyhow. 

If we can get rid of them this will be a fine country. 
The rich can live in peace and the militia fellers can go to 
doin somethin useful. 

Now there is several good ways to git rid of the people 
who work for a livin. 

The best and surest way is to kill them, and now is the 
time to do it, when land is cheap. The buryin wont cost 
so much now as it would if we had more money and land 
was higher. 

But I dont believe in shootin. 

They ort to be killed in some nice, quiet way, in a way 
that wont cripple them up as militia shootin might. 

I hate to see crippled poor people ; it makes me feel 
sorry for them. 

The thing to do is to git a great lot of them together in 
a bunch, then do it quick and sure. 

The best way I know of is to offer a great feast of bread 


PLAN TO RELIEVE THE RICH OF EXPENSE. 


135 

and “real cow butter,” with three or four side dishes, and 
invite all to come and feast their fill. 

Then when they are all at a great feast, eatin and enjoyin 
theirselves, like the rich people do, have an electric arrange- 
ment fixed so the current could be turned on the whole 
crowd at once, and in twelve seconds they would all be 
stone dead. 

They would die with a smile on their faces, jist like as if 
they had alius sot at the table of plenty and enjoyed their- 
selves. The big Methodist church in town would be a 
good place to have the feast and do the killin. 

Then arter the current was turned off all we would have 
to do would be to load their dead bodies in wagons and 
haul them off and bury them in some cheap piece of ground 
and let the militia disband. 

Dont you see, in that way we would dispose of the old 
and young alike — the little children as well as the grown 
up men and women. I know some of the little children 
are pretty. Some even have nice yaller, curly hair, big 
blue eyes and red cheeks, and love one another. Ive heern 
of them clingin to the necks of their fathers and mothers 
with love, even when hungry. But we will have to kill the 
little things, or they will grow up to annoy the rich, jist as 
their fathers and mothers annoy them now. 

Of course, I know drownin is a easy death, and pizenin 
and all sich, but them are old-fashioned ways. Some of 
them might escape if we undertook to do it them ways. 

This electricity bizness is a grand thing, and is sure 
death if worked right. 

Of course, other counties could do it whichever way 
they think best, but here in Tuscarawas County, with the 
big Methodist church and all and plenty of laborin people, 
electricity is the thing to use. 

We might have two or three killins in this county. Fust 


136 


BETSY G A SKINS, DIMICRAT. 


we could give a feast 
to all the rollin mill 
men and rail work- 
ers ; then to all the 
coal miners ; then 
to all the carpen- 
ters, and stone 
masons, and day 
laborers, and sich, 
and by not lettin any 
escape, one kind 
1 wouldent git onto 

V what was bein done 

' until we had them 

enclosed and the 
current turned on. 

Ive been a talkin 
to Jobe about it, and 
he says that jist 
whatever the Re- 
publican party says 
he’ll agree to ; but 
he declares he dont 
want to go to town on the day of the killin. 

I dont know why he doesent want to go. It may be he 
is afraid he will git inside, or it may be he doesent want to 
look upon the faces of those dead poor people, whose toil 
has created all the wealth the rich people own who now 
wants them killed. 

Now, Mistur Editure, if you will talk this scheme up 
among the rich people of the nation, and especially of 
Ohio, I think you can git them to see that it would be 
much cheaper than their payin each year to keep a standin 
army, and it would be more kind to the laborin people 



“Some of the little children are pretty.’ 


PLAN TO RELIEVE THE RICH OF EXPENSE. 


137 


than to shoot them through the head when they are hungry, 
or make them cry with pain by cripplin them all up with 
big, heavy Winchester bullets. 

Besides, think of the moanin and grief and heartaches 
and tears it would save the wives and children if they are 
killed at the same time their husbands and fathers are. 

Shootin down men folks allers makes someone cry, and 
I hate to hear it even if it is poor women and little poor 
children. 

And shootin seems to be sich a slow way of gittin rid of 
them. 

Why, down in New York they use electricity to kill 
murderers with. They wouldent think of standin off and 
shootin even murderers down there. They use electricity 
because it is quicker and surer death, and more refined, 
and I know that the people of Ohio who labor for a livin 
haint any worse or deservin of more cruel treatment than 
murderers are in New York. 

Hopin the rich will be merciful to the poor as long as 
they let them live on their land and in their country, I am 
yours for electricity and agin the militia. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 


THEM PROMISES. 

J OBE took what hay he could spare to town yisterday 
and sold it to Billot, the miller. He dident git any 
money. He took Billot’s note, due ten days before 
our semi-annual interest falls due on our mortgage. 

Jobe says he would rather have Billot’s note than the 
money. He says it haint in style to pay cash durin a gold 
basis. 

Our hay crop wasent nothin to brag on this year. We 



got $19 worth of hay off from five acres of medder, and a 
little doodle for old Tom. 

Now, I haint a goin to complain any more till arter fall 
election, but when Jobe come home and told me that $19 
was all he got for his hay, and that what he did git would 
have to go for interest, I jist thought that it would not be 
so hard to give what you raise to somebody else if you got 
anything to show for it when you did give. 

But arter we sell our hay and thirty bushels of wheat 
that Billot said he would take at 60 cents a bushel, and 

138 


THEM PROMISES. 


139 



the Lord only knows 
wliat else, to pay that 
$63 interest in October, 
we will still owe jist as 
much as we did before. 

Now, if my dream had 
been true, and we had 
borrowed that $1,800 
from the county treas- 
urer at only two per 
cent., instid of the 
banker at seven per 
cent., our semi-annual 
interest would a bin only 
$18 instid of $63. 

With $63, then, we 
could have paid the $18 
interest to the county 
and $45 on the mortgage 
— and that would be 
encouragin. 

I wonder when the 
Dimicratic, or Republi- 
can party either, or 

both, will begin to do 

, .. “They are kept so busy legislatin.” 

somethin to make it easy r } & 

for people to buy homes, and pay for them, by makin it 

easy for people to borrow money when they need it, by 

reducin interest and taxes and sich. 

Every election since Jobe and me was married, fust one 
party and then the other has been promisin to do somethin 
to help the people git along in the world, but I declare to 
goodness I have nearly got discouraged waitin for them to 
do it. 


140 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


They seem to be so forgetful arter election. I guess 
they are kept so busy legislatin and makin laws to help 
the rich that they jist dont have time to do anything for 
the poor. 

By the time the law-makers git all the laws that the 
railroad-owners and street-car companies and bridge com- 
panies and bankers and bondholders and monopolists and 
other milionairs want, they haint got any time to look 
arter the farmers and mechanics and merchants and mill- 
hands and coal miners and sich ; so they jist let the people’s 
bizness go, until the next election, to make promises on. 
And as the voters seem willin to wait, jist so they git to vote 
the strait ticket, I guess I will have to do so too. 



CHAPTER XXV. 


JOBE EXCITED OVER A NOMINATION. 

T HIS mornin while I was settin a churnin and 
thinkin, thinkin how high the monopoly men and 
the money-lenders and the officeholders live, and 
how low the farmers and mechanics and day laborers live, 
and wonderin why some live high and some low, Jobe 
come a stormin in at the kitchen door, so suddint like that 
it skeert me. 

Says he: 4 ‘Betsy, give me my overhalls, quick, and put 
up that churnin and come out and help me build a higher 
fence around the medder. ” 

And while he was a sayin it he was a jerkin skirts and 
pettycoats and sich like down from the nails in the wall 
onto the floor, a liuntin them overhalls. 

“Why, Jobe,” says I, “what on airth is the matter? 
What do you want more fence around the medder for?” 

“To save the grass, Betsy, to save the grass,” says he. 
“What would you suppose Ide want more fence around the 
medder for? Hurry up, quit that churnin and git me them 
overhalls, or he will have half the grass stomped out before 
we git a rail up.” 

I stopped churnin, and, lookin him strait in the face, 
says I : 

“Jobe Gaskins, are you crazy? What are you talkin 
about anyhow?” 

“What am I talkin about?” says he. “What am I talkin 
about? Betsy, Ime talkin about Coxey — Coxey! Theyve 
went and nominated him for governor, and he’ll stomp all 

141 


142 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



the grass out of the 
State of Ohio if the 
fences haint built 
higher and stronger. 

“You can see now 
what them Populists 
are a bringin us to. 

“You can see now 
what you git for 
readin them Popu- 
list books and pa- 
pers. 

“You git to carry 
rails, and set stakes, 
and put on riders, 

and ” 

I had sot down 
and went to churnin. 

When Jobe heerd 
the sound of that 
dasher he stopped huntin for them overhalls, and, turnin to 
me with fire in his eyes, says, says he : 

“Haint you a goin to help build that fence?” 

I stopped churnin, and, turnin round facin him, with my 
hands on my knees, says I : 

“Jobe Gaskins, if you and your likes would begin to 
build up your common sense and good judgment with sich 
ideas as Coxey’s f county bonds without interest,’ and 
Coxey’s plan of makin roads and givin work to idle men 
like yourself — I say, if you and your likes would build up 
3'our common sense with some sich ideas instid of votin 
the strait ticket with your eyes shet, you wouldent have to 
lose so much time in the future a borrowin interest money 
and workin to pay taxes. Yes, if you and your likes had 


JOBE EXCITED OVER A NOMINATION. 


H3 


been a votin for 
some sich ideas 
for years past 
instid of votin 
for a lot of office- 
seekin cander- 
dates(who never 
had a idea), you 
wouldent be $1,- 
800 in debt to- 
day ; you would- 
ent be a sellin 
wheat for sixty 
cents a bushel 
and wool for fif- 
teen cents a 
pound; you 
wouldent be a 
givin all you 
raise every year 
for interest and 
taxes. 

“So my ad- 

vice to you, Jobe -I had sot down and went to churnm.” 
Gaskins, is for 

you and your likes to open gaps in your wall of prejudice 
and let Coxey and his ideas in, instid of buildin higher 
fences around your medders to keep him out. 

“Yes, put up a notice invitin Mr. Coxey to come in and 
plant his ideas all over your field, and tromp them in if 
need be. 

“Do this, and I think when you go to vote hereafter you 
will see crops a growin you haint seen before.” 

Jobe had been sidelin toward the door while I was 



144 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


speakin, and, reachin it, he went out a mutterin somethin 
about dyin before he would change ; that he wouldent 
let Coxey into his medder if it would cause enough hay to 
grow next year to pay off the $1,800 mortgage that’s on 
our farm. 

I went on a finishin my churnin so as to have the butter 
to trade for some groceries when the huckster comes 
around. It was lovely butter. I was tempted to use some 
of it for dinner, but dident dare, for fear I wouldent have 
enough left to git what we actually need. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 


THE BLOOMERS. 

I MADE me a pair of Dimicratic bloomers day before 
yisterday, and Jobe he is mad. Ive been a waitin to 
make me a pair all summer, but put off doin so till 
arter the Dimicratic State convention. As soon as I heerd 
from that convention I sot to work and made them. 

I made one leg and the waist out of a pair of Jobe’s old 
black pants, and the other leg I made out of a sheet. 

The black leg is to represent the polerticians and 
schemers what wants a “gold basis,” and the white leg is 
for the Dimicratic voters what wants silver for money jist 
like we use to have years ago when times were good. 

I made the black leg and waist for the right side, because 
it seems that the fellers what it stands for is the strongest, 
and the white leg is for the “left” side. 

When I was a soin that white leg to the black leg, every 
now and then a stitch would break out of the white leg, 
jist as though that white leg dident want to be hitched 
onto that “black leg” side, and I jist thought it would be 
a wonder if the white leg side of them bloomers dident 
split clear off from the “black leg ” side before election day. 

But by a good deal of whippin and stitchin I got them 
together and put them on to go out and pick pertater bugs. 

Jobe he was away, and I was as busy as I could be 
knockin bugs into an old tomato can, bent over like, when 
Jobe come up to the gate and hollered : 

“Hello, mistur!” 

I stopped and turned towards him and says, says I : 

i45 


146 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM ICR AT. 


“I thank you, Jobe 
Gaskins; Ime no ‘mis- 
tur.’” 

Well, you ort a seen 
the look on that man’s 
face. 

He turned pale, 
opened his eyes skeert 
like, stepped back and 
says : 

“Why, Betsy, what 
air you out here for 
with your clothes off?” 

That made me mad. 
Says I : 

“Mistur Gaskins, I 
thank you for none of 
your insults. If you 
had any sense you 
would know that I am 
dressed in the latest 
fashion.” 

Then I explained 
to him that bloomers 
were all the go, and that I had made mine arter the style of my 
party — arter the Dimicratic State platform of Ohio and 
the Dimicratic county platform of Tuscarawas County — 
one gold, the other silver. Says I : 

“Dont you see, Jobe, in this garb we ketch em a comin 
and we ketch em a goin.” 

Says he: “Betsy, do you intend to wear them things 
all fall?” 

“ I do,” says I. 



“The Dimicratic bloomers.’ 



“Hello, mistur ! ” 


147 



148 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 



He studied a minit. Then, 
lookin at me determined like, 
says he : 

“ You needent look for me home 
to-nite.” 

And off he started. 

As he went he kept lookin, fust 
back at me, then down at his pants. 

Whether or not he was a thinkin 
that his pants with their patches 
represented the platform of his 
“dear old Republican party” I 
cant say. But I jist thought : “If 
they dont represent his party 
platform, they are a good standin 
advertisement of the greenbacks 
that have been burnt, and the 
bonds that have been issued, and 
silver that has been demonitized 
by them within the last thirty 
years.” 

Jobe is gone, the Lord only 
knows where, but Ive made up 
my mind to truly represent the 
divided principles of Dimocracy as it now stands, if doin 
so elects Coxey the next governor of Ohio and makes me 
a grass widder for life. Feelin that way, I am yours in 
bloomers. 


“ ‘We ketch em a comm an 
we ketch em a goin.’ ” 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


“THEM POPULISTS.” 

I ME in trouble. Them Dimicratic bloomers seem bound 
to split asunder, or worse. Some days there is only 
a stitch or two breaks out ; other days they rip half 
the length of my arm. 

Every time I think of the high interest we are payin and 
have been a payin for these many years, of the number of 
times we have changed officers from Dimicrats to Repub- 
licans, then from Republicans to Dimicrats, back and 
forth, time and agin, without any change except for the 
worse — every time that I think in all these years not one 
Dimicrat or Republican officeseeker or polertician has riz 
up in Congress and demanded that the law that permits 
interest and foreclosin and sich be abolished, a stitch or 
two lets go. Yes, neither Dimicrat or Republican has 
ever proposed to abolish interest or in any way make it 
easier for the hard-workin poor people to git homes and 
pay for them. And the more I think of what they did do 
that they oughtent a done, and what they haint done that 
they ort a done, the more I wonder that there are enough 
men left of either of them, or, for that matter, of both, to 
hold a county convention. 

But then I spose its because they are born that way. 

But talkin of my gold and silver bloomers, nothin seems 
to strain them so much or make as long rips in them as a 
listenin to them Populists explainin Coxey’s “Good Roads 
Bill” and them bonds what wont draw any interest. When 
I see in my mind people a needin work and a gittin it — 

149 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM ICR AT. 


150 

when I can see how under that law Jobe wouldent have to 
spend time a borrowin tax-money, but could work for it, 
them bloomers keep a gittin more obstreperous all the time. 

The other nite at our school-house they jist kept a rippin 
and a rippin as speaker arter speaker went on a showin us 
what we haint got that we ort to have ; showin us how we 
had been a throwin our votes away for these thirty years 
or more ; showin us how tjiat votin for officeseekers and 
polerticians and votin for good laws and good government 
was two different things; showin us that while Jobe and 
his likes has been a doin the votin, the officeseekers and 
polerticians has been a makin the laws that takes from us 
in taxes and interest what we raise, and that it seems that 
we are willin to submit just so long as they will let us keep 
on a votin for them. 

I tell you its a goin to take a good deal of Brice’s sen- 
atorial soin thread to hold these bloomers together until 
election day; and arter election, sooner or later, I know 
they will split. That white leg side hates the black leg 
side worse nor pisen, and here and there all over the 
white leg I notice strange-lookin spots the same color as 
the clothes them Populists wear. And the spots are a 
growin and I fear there will be no bloomer bizness when 
them spots are big enough to rule that leg. 

If it ever happens that all the people who have suffered 
from the hard times that bad laws have brought them go 
to flockin together, and votin for common, decent people 
to make our laws, there will be a weepin and a wailin 
among the high-toned rulin class. The people will quit 
bein led around with a ring in their nose by the polerticians 
and officeseekers jist like Dave Syke’s Durham bull. But 
so long as one Dimicratic convention declares for gold and 
the other for silver, I suppose lie have to try to hold my 
bloomers together. 


‘‘ THEM POPULISTS." 


151 

Well, Jobe he come back last Saturday. He had been 
gone for two weeks. When I seen him a comin up the 
lane, I jist felt like I use to when I was a girl. He dident 
say a word about my bloomers, but seemed pleased like to 
see me. Before he got up to the porch he says : “ Hello, 
Betsy!” and when he got to me he shook hands and kissed 
me (the fust time for nigh onto twenty years) — yes, sir, 
kissed me, and me in bloomers — Dimicratic bloomers! — 
and him a Republican. Somehow it seems the Repub- 



licans do like us Dimicrats better than they use to. May- 
be its because we all hate them Populists so. 

Well, arter Jobe had come in and got his supper and I 
got my work done up, we went into the front room and sot 
down; sot down to have a talk — to court like. I had to 
begin the talkin. Says I : 

“Jobe, where have you been for so long?” 

“Well, Betsy,” says he, “Ive been around over the 
country learnin all I could about them Populists. Do you 


152 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


know, Betsy, that them Populists are jist made up of a lot 
of farmers, and school teachers, and doctors, and store- 
keepers, and railroad hands, and mill-workers, and coal- 
miners, and carpenters, and stonemasons, and day 
laborers and sich? Do you know that the lawyers, and 
judges, and officeholders, and bondholders, and poler- 
ticians, and monopolists, and bankers, and railroad officials, 
and coal operators, and in fact nearly all the fust, high- 
toned and leadin citizens of our country — all them that 
dont work for a livin — them what are smart enough to live 
without workin — all sich, they dont belong to them at all.” 

Says I : “ Is that so?” 

“Yes,” says he, “it is. And now, Betsy, what do 
them Populists expect to do? Do they expect to elect 
farmers, and school teachers, and merchants, and 
mechanics, and men what work for a livin, as officers? 

“Do they expect to have men what haint got any more 
sense than to work for a livin to make our laws? 

“Do you think farmers have sense enough to know what 
laws farmers need? 

“Do you suppose school teachers has sense enough to 
know anything about schools? 

“Does merchants know anything about the store-keepin 
bizness? 

“ Do you suppose mechanics and mill-men and miners 
know anything about laborin? No. These men what do 
all these things dont know anything about the things 
they do. 

“We want lawyers, and bankers, and railroad owners, 
and monopolists, and speculators, and bondholders, and 
mine-owners and sich as our law-makers. These are the 
fellers what know all about farmin and teachin, and sellin 
goods, and diggin coal, and buildin houses, and workin 
mills, and makin things. Yes, Betsy, the fellers what do 



“The fust time for nigh onto twenty years.” 


153 



154 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


them things haint got sense enough to know anything 
about the things they do. Its the fellers what dont do 
them that knows all about them. 

“Now, Betsy, this bein the case, if you are a goin to 
wear bloomers, I want you to color that white leg black 
and work for the strait ticket, so, if the Dimicrats git in, 
we will have the same kind of men to make our laws as we 
would have if the Republicans git in. We must unite agin 
them Populists, Betsy, or the fust thing we know they will 
be a gittin in and passin them laws what Coxey is wantin 
passed, and then people what work for a livin will go to 
askin $1.50 a day — and a gittin it. I repeat it, Betsy, we 
must unite.” 

I was silent. 

Jobe, continerin, says: 

“Betsy, think over this and lets us two old parties here- 
after live in peace and unite our efforts in keepin things 
jist as they are, and not go to complainin of hard times of 
our own makin.” 

It bein late, and not wishin to git into a argament with 
Jobe so soon arter his return to my boozum, I retired in 
silence, but I cant jist say that I swaller all of Jobe’s logic 
without peelin. 

I think I shall defer the colorin of that white leg for a 
few days, until we have discussed the subject further, and 
until I have obtained the full consent of the white leg side 
to the colorin act, remainin for the time ondecidedly yourn. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


TROUBLE WITH BILLOT. 

T HERE may be hopes of my bloomers survivin the 
election, but I tell you it takes stitchin and soin to 
do it. That State platform ort a been like the county 
platform, or else the county platform like the State. Then 
my bloomers would a been all alike — both legs made of the 
same kind of stuff — and wouldent a needed this whippin 
and stitchin and soin. 

Jobe is in a fix agin. 

Our interest falls due the 20th of October, and you 
remember it is payable in gold. 

Well, what do you think? Jobe sold his hay and wheat 



“Billot jist laffed at him.” 


to Billot, the miller, and took Billot’s note for $37.60, 
and yisterday, when Jobe went to git his money, Billot 
counted him out paper money for the amount. 

Jobe told him that he wanted gold. 

Billot jist laffed at him, and told Jobe that paper money 
was legal tender in sich bizness as this. 

i55 


1 5 6 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



Jobe told him that we was on a “gold basis,” and that 
he had to have gold to pay Banker Vinting his interest. 

Billot said he had nothin to do with Jobe’s interest or 
Banker Vinting ; that Jobe could take that paper money 
or nothin. 

Jobe he got mad and called Billot a crank and a Popu- 
list and all sich terrible names. 

Then Billot ordered Jobe out of the mill, and Jobe went 
off and sued Billot for $37.60 in gold. 

Jobe says he’ll teach Billot that gold is the money of 
this country. He says that Billot thinks that jist because 


TROUBLE WITH BILLOT. 


157 

he is a old farmer that he haint good enough to pay 
gold to. 

Do you think Jobe will git the gold from Billot? 

I will have to go to the trial next Monday and help Jobe 
inforce the law agin Billot. 

Jobe is a full-blooded American citizen and has voted 
the strait ticket since he was twenty-one, and Billot will 
learn by the time he gits done with that lawsuit that this 
gold basis bizness is for the low-toned people as well as 
the high-toned people. 

The idea of paper money bein money! 


CHAPTER XXIX. 


“INFORCIN THE LAW AGIN BILLOT.” 

W HEN we got to the trial, on Monday, we found our 
witnesses and the witnesses and lawyers of Billot 
a talkin, and a laffin, and a whisperin together. 
They seemed to have some deep subject which Dimicrats 
and Republicans were both in earnest about. 

So I told Jobe to git around among them and listen, and 
see if they wasent layin some plan to gain the lawsuit for 
Billot. 

Soon arter Jobe he come in a smilin and said : 

“They haint a talkin about the lawsuit at all; they are 
jist talkin together how to beat them Populists at the 
election next month.” 

Jobe seemed tickled. He said them lawyers and editors 
are smart fellers, and when they git out among them 
ignorant farmers and laborin class they’d soon settle all 
that Populist argament. 

“There wont be any change in this country,” says he, 
“as long as them editors and lawyers can help it.” 

He said they were goin at it purty soon, and from what 
he could hear it dident make any difference to these leadin 
fellers who beats, jist so them Populists dont git in. 

Says I to Jobe : 

“They had better git at it, for if them Populists elects a 
farmer for representative, a farmer for treasurer, a farmer 
for commissioner, a coal miner for sheriff, and a mechanic 

for infirmary director, and they all make good officers, the 

158 


“ INFO RC IN THE LAW AGIN BILLOT! 


159 


chance of them 
lawyers and town 
polerticians hold- 
in all the offices 
herearter will be 
slim.” 

“Why, sich 
people was never 
made to hold 
office,” says Jobe. 

The squire 
come in at that 
time and stopped 
the argament be- 
tween Jobe and 
me. 

The case was 
begun. 

The fust witness for our side was Sam Moore, editure ot 
the Times. I questioned him. 

Question. “What is your bizness, Mr. Moore?” 

Answer. “Editure and polertician,” says he. 

Q. “Do you believe in the free coinage of silver?” 

A. “If we can git it inside the Dimicratic party, I do. 
If we cannot, I do not.” 

Q. “Mr. Moore, is a treasury certificate issued by the 
United States treasury money?” 

A. “Well, now, Betsy, I — I — that is, I am not pre- 
pared to answer that question at this time. Cal 
Bri ” 

“Hold! hold!” cried Lawyer Jim Patrick, jumpin to his 
feet. (Patrick is Billot’s lawyer.) Gittin red in the face 
and pintin his finger at Sam, says he : 

“ Moore, we dont want Cal Brice’s name mentioned 



160 BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 

durin this camp — cam — or, or lawsuit, I mean. You know 
as well as I do that he can never git back to the Senate if 
we let the people know that he is after the office.” Then, 
turnin to the squire, says he : 

“I object to the gentleman answerin the question.” 

I argued that all we wanted was to git at the truth ; that 
we was intitled to the truth, if gittin it defeated Mr. Brice 
or any other canderdate for office. 

But Jim he out-talked me, and the squire ruled that “ the 
less said about Cal in open meetin the better for his 
chances.” As much as to say that sometimes things could 
be done better by suppressin the truth than by tellin it. 

I perceeded : 

Q. “Mr. Moore, how long has it been since you quit 
advocatin the issue of ‘good old-fashioned greenback 
paper money ’? How long has it been since you said time 
arter time in your noosepaper that ‘the greenback was the 
best money we have ever had ’ ? ” 

A. “Well, Betsy, I haint advocated paper money for 
nigh onto a year. Not since we decided that we wanted 
Cal Bri ” 

“Hold, hold!” shouted Jim Patrick agin. Says he, 
jumpin to his feet : 

“Moore, what do you mean? Dont you know you are 
injurin our cause? Dont you know that if it gits out that 
Cal is a canderdate he will be defeated? Dont you know 
if he is defeated none of us will git an office? Sam, I want 
you to bring his name in this matter no more.” 

That made Sam mad.’ He riz up and says, says he : 

“Mr. Patrick, I want you to understand that I am 
under oath now, and not a editin a free silver paper 
in the interest of a gold-bug canderdate, nor am I under 
the control of the Dimicratic Executive Committee while I 
am on this stand.” 


‘ ‘Mr. Moore, how long has it been since you quit advocatin 

THE USE OF GOOD OLD-FASHIONED GREENBACKS ? ’ ” 


x6i 




BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


162 

Sam was gittin madder every minit. 

So I riz to my feet and says : 

“Hear, hear, gentlemen, dont lets drag family affairs 
into this suit agin Billot.” 

I saw they was likely to give away the secrets of my 
party. 

Seein that Mr. Moore was excited, and, if pressed, was 
liable to swear agin us instid of for us, I excused him. 

Then Jim took him. 

Q. “Mr. Moore, what is money?” 

A. “Money is anything the law says is legal tender for 
debts.” 

Q. “Mr. Moore, are not United States treasury notes 
legal tender? and then are they not money?” 

Sam begin to color up agin. Answerin, says he : 

“Well, now, look here, Jim, you know what shape our 
party is in — that all the big fellers are for a gold basis — 
and you know, too, that there is no chance for any of us to 
git appinted to office if we dont come out for gold. You 
know I edit one of the leadin papers; and you know it 
takes a great effort to hold the party together. Now, Jim, 
dont you think you had better not make me answer that 
question — under oath? Or if you want me to answer it, 
dont you think you ort to git this case abjourned till after 
election day?” 

Jim studied a minit, looked wise like, and says: 

“Mr. Moore, youre excused.” 

Sam got down and went out, mutterin as he went some- 
thin about it bein “hard, these times, for a truthful man 
to be a Dimicrat. ” 

My next witness was Buckannan. 

Q. “Buck, what is your bizness?” 

A. “Lawyer — Dimicratic lawyer and polertician.” 

Q. “Buck, what is money?” 


“ IN FORCIN THE LAW AGIN BILLOT 


1^3 

A. “Gold — gold is money.” 

Q. ‘‘Who makes money, Buck?” 

A. “God — God makes money.” 

That was all I wanted. Thats the kind of swearin I 
wanted to inforce the law agin Billot. So I turned Buck 
over to Patrick. 

Jim he looked Buck in the face a minit. Buck he 
dropped his eyes shamed like. 

Then Jim perceeded : 

Q. “Buck, what is your bizness and polertics?” 

A. “ Ime a lawyer — a Dimicratic lawyer and poler- 
tician.” 

Q. “Buck, did you ever study the money question?” 

A. “No, sir; never did ; never want to ; never will. I 
know enough. Ime a Dimicrat — a Dimicratic lawyer — and 
that suits me.” 

Q. “Buck, dont you know that anything that the law 
says is legal tender for debts is money? and dare you 
swear here under oath that a paper bill issued by the 
United States treasury is not money?” 

Buck colored up and looked hurt like. Says he : 

“Patrick, you know the condition our party is in, and 
you know that our names would be Dennis if Cal ” 

“Hold, hold! ” cried Jim, jumpin to his feet — and, pintin 
his forefinger strait at Buck, vicious like, says he : 

“Here, Buck, dont you know that Brice has instructed 
us to mention his name as little as possible. Now, I want 
you to answer this question without any reference to Cal 
or anybody else : Is paper money money?” 

Poor Buck, he filled up, and, trimbling like, says: 

“It is, Patrick — it is.” 

And great big tears rolled down his manly cheek and 
dropped on the lapel of his Prince Albert coat. 

The squire asked him what was the matter. 


164 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM/CRAT. 



He said he was ruined; that 
he had been tellin everybody 
that “nothin was money but 
gold,” and now if it got out that 
he swore in the case of Gas- 
kins agin Billot that paper 
money is money, nobody would 
believe him hereafter. And, 
poor man, he cried like a child. 

Well, as I had examined what 
I considered my strongest wit- 
nesses, and they dident swear 

as they talked 

^Kluoififa to the voters, 
but jist to the 
contrary, I con- 
cluded to end 
the case and let 
the squire decide it. I argued that nothin was money but 
gold, showed how all the noosepapers said so, and how 
all the lawyers and polerticians said so (except when on 
oath). I showed how Jobe had delivered good wheat and 
hay to Billot and took his note for it, how Billot offered 
Jobe jist common paper money when the note was due; 
showed how Jobe demanded gold money and nothin else, 
because gold was the recognized money of the world, and 
closed by askin the court to give us judgment agin Billot, 
payable in gold, and to make Billot pay the costs. I 
sot down. 

Jim Patrick got up and said they had no testimony to 
offer except Jobe Gaskins’ own statement that Billot had 
offered to pay him with paper money, and now he tendered 
to the court the same money Billot had offered to Gaskins, 
and asked for judgment agin Gaskins for the costs. 


Lawyer — Dimicratic lawyer and polertician.’ 


‘ * IN FORCIN' THE LA IV A GIN BILL OTN 165 

The squire took the money, counted it and stuck it in 
his pocket, then hemmed and hawed a minit and said that 
Billot had made a full legal tender of the amount due 
Gaskins, as in his court paper money allers had been 
good and he hoped it allers would be. He then said : 

“My judgment is in favor of the defendant Billot, with 
the costs of this case charged to the plaintiff Gaskins.” 

It nearly took my breath. 

The costs was $18.60, all told. 

The squire said that paper money made by the United 
States was real money, and if a man offered to pay a debt 
with it, and the man he offered it to refused it and tried to 
make him pay gold, he would have to pay the cost for 
tryin it. 

Instid of us inforcin the law agin Billot, it looks to me 
that we have had the law inforced agin us. 

Jobe says that Squire Reed is a anacrist and ort to be 
hung. 



CHAPTER XXX. 


BETSY DISCUSSES “FIAT” MONEY. 

L AST Sunday, arter I got my dinner dishes washed up 
and the kitchen swept, I went out in the front yard 
where Jobe was. I found him a settin at the foot 
of the big apple tree, sound asleep. 

He had took the noosepaper with him and sot down there 
to read why it is better to borrow money from Urope 
than to make it ourselves, and had went to sleep over it. 
Besides he had been out all the nite before to a big 
Republican rally and had carried a banner sayin : 


GIVE US MONEY 
GOOD IN UROPE. 


And the poor man had to tramp three or four miles through 
the mud to git to do it; so I suppose he was tired — 
tuckered out, as it were. 

Well, I looked at him a minit a sittin there with his 
head throwed back agin that apple tree, his legs stretched 
out, his boots a shinin with the fresh lard he had rubbed 
on them jist afore dinner, and his honest old face turned 
up toward me, and I says to myself, says I : “There sets 
one of God’s noblemen, injoyin the sleep of innercence. ” 
And then I thought if I could only git him and his likes to 
understand that they are a part of this government, and 
that the government belongs to them and not to those onlv 
who are rich and high-toned — I say, I jist thought that if 

1 66 


BETSY DISCUSSES “FIAT” MONEY . 


167 



I could only git them to see that they had rights that ort 
to be respected and the power to inforce them rights, what 
a different country this might be. 

Thinking this and feelin the importance of my duty, I 
decided to begin to edicate him then and there. 

He has a habit of gittin up and leavin me when I begin 
to talk to him on things ; so I made up my mind that I 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 


1 68 

would fix him this time so he couldent git away, and would 
give him some plain talk on the money question. 

I got the rope I use as a clothes line, and, slippin up 
behind him, I wound it around and around him and the 
tree from his waist to his neck. He never flinched. Then 
I got the check lines from the barn, and, fastenin them to 
his feet, I tied one to one gate post and one to the other, 
and with the hitchin strap I tied his hands behind him. 
Then I got a straw and tickled his nose. 

You ort a seen him try to jump ; but he couldent move. 

He opened his eyes and says to me, skeert like : 

* 1 Betsy, what does all this mean?” 

I think he was afraid I was a goin to kill him, but, 
answerin, says I : 

“ It means, Mr. Gaskins, that I propose to discuss the 
money question here without interference and without my 
audience a leavin before I git done, as is its usual custom.” 

Says he : “Betsy, wont you let me loose?” 

“Not till I git done,” says I. 

Says he: “Why, I cant sit here and listen to you for 
an hour?” 

“You cant?” says I. “But you will. You can spend 
all nite, and nite arter nite, a listenin to argaments in favor 
of continerin the laws that makes prices low and interest 
and taxes high — laws that keeps you poor and the poler- 
ticians rich — but you think you cant spend a hour listenin 
to a argament for a law that would make it easier for you 
to live; that would give you better prices and lower 
interest.” 

Then, puttin my hands on my hips and lookin, lovin 
like, down at him, says I : 

“Jobe, dear, I guess you will listen this time, and you 
wont leave till the speaker dismisses, will you?” 

Says he, half laffln, half cryin : 


BE TS Y DISCUSSES ‘ ‘ FI A T ’ ’ MONE Y. 


169 


“It looks that way, Betsy.” 

So I went and got me a chair, brought it out and sot 
down in front of him. When I got seated says he : 

“Betsy, is it Dimicrat or Republican argament that you 
want me to listen to?” 

Says I: “It is neither, Jobe. It is neither. It is 
female — female argament, based on common sense and 
bed-rock experience. It is the argament of a lovin wife to 
a errin husband. The argament of one who knows there 
is somethin wrong and has tried to find somethin better 
than what we have got. Are you ready?” says I. 

Jobe tried to nod his head, but couldent. He looked 
real interestin. 

“Perceed with the argament,” says he. 

So, leanin up strait in my chair and foldin my arms across 
my boozum, I perceeded. Says I : 

“Jobe, what is money?” 

“Money?” says he. “Why, money is — is — is — why, 
Betsy, money is jist money.” 

Says I : “Is that all the answer you can give?” 

“I guess so,” says he. 

Then a thought seemed to strike him, and, lookin up 
sudden like, says he : 

“Why, money is gold — thats what money is.” 

I looked at him a full minit. Then says I : 

“Jobe Gaskins, if money is gold, how much money have 
you seen since you was a baby? If money is gold, how 
much have you handled since you become the husband o* 
Betsy Gaskins?” 

“Why — why,” says he, “I haint handled much goM, 
but I have ” 

“Hold on,” says I. “Then you haint seen much 
money, or else somethin is money besides gold — haint 
that so?” 


170 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


“Yes, I guess there is some money besides gold, ” says he. 

“Then you agree that paper money is money, do you?” 

“Yes, I reckon it is,” says he. 

“Well, then,” says I, “we will perceed with the arga- 
ment.” 

Jobe looked worried. If it hadent a been for them ropes 
and straps, about this time Jobe would a had bizness some- 
where else. It seems that some men get very bizzy about 
the time one is ready to show them how they can help 
themselves. But, havin full confidence in that clothes 
line, I went on. 

“Money,” says I, “is somethin made by one’s govern- 
ment that we git when we dispose of somethin we have. 
If you sell somethin direct to the government and the 
government gives you money for it, it is the same as a 
receipt from the people that they have received from you 
somethin of so much value — and it at the same time is an 
order on all the people for them to give you whatever you 
want of equal value. The officers that make the money 
and do the bizness is merely the agents of a big company 
of people known as the United States, and each man, be 
he rich or poor, is a member of the firm. Instid of havin 
our money (that is these receipts) signed by every member 
of the company, which would require a very large piece of 
paper, we have a stamp, and say to our agents or officers 
for them to put that stamp on our money and we will stand 
by it. The placin of that stamp on a piece of paper by 
the right officers is the same as if all the twelve million 
men had signed it, and the women too. 

“So, if you sell the government say $10 worth of oats 
to feed our army mules on, or if you do $10 worth of work 
a keepin books or a holdin office or a bankin up th& 
Mississippi River, and you git a $10 bill for it — that bill, 
or your havin of that bill, says that you as a individual 


BETSY DISCUSSES “FIAT" MONEY. 


171 



have delivered to all the balance of the seventy million 
people — to the company, if you please — $10 worth of value, 
and hold their paper for it. Now, if, arter you git that $10 
from all the people, you go to Alick Smith and buy his 


172 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


Chester White brood sow and give him the $10 for her, 
your claim aginst all the people has passed from you to 
him — he has the receipt for the value you delivered the 
government and you have his sow. And, bein a good 
citizen, he takes the paper $10, because the value you gave 
the government was in part for him, and the $10 is an order 
to him as one of the twelve million or more pardners. 
And you bein one of the twelve million, you are one of the 
firm also, and stand ready to accept that same $10 for any- 
thing you may have to sell that Alick Smith might want.” 

Jobe seemed to be a gittin interested. 

“Then,” says I, “we will say that Alick would go to 
town and buy two gallons of John Schwab’s rye whiskey. 
John takes the bill for the same reason that Alick did. 
Well, John bein a licker dealer, we — that is, all the people — 
charge him $25 a year for sellin rye whiskey and sich. So 
John sends that same $10 to the revenue collector at Cleve- 
land for his revenue tax. The revenue collector sends it 
to the treasury at Washington, where it was made, and 
where it fust come from. Haint it been redeemed? Haint 
that money? John Schwab paid for the work you done, or 
for the oats the government mules eat, and paid for it with 
the receipt you got for the oats or the work. 

“Now, suppose nothin was money but gold, and the 
government couldent issue sich receipts or orders, or 
whatever you want to call them, and suppose the govern- 
ment dident have any gold — so then you couldent sell your 
oats, nor you couldent git the work to do on the river 
bank, and you wouldent git any money. If you couldent 
git the money you couldent buy Alick’s sow ; if Alick 
couldent sell his sow he couldent buy Schwab’s whiskey; 
if Schwab couldent sell his whiskey he couldent pay 
revenue tax, and when people cant pay revenue tax the 
government gits hard up and has to borrow money. 


BE TS Y DISCUSSES ‘ ‘ FI A T ’ ’ MONE Y. 


173 


“Now, Jobe,” says I, “honest injun, which do you 
think would be the best : to make what money this firm of 
the United States needs or to keep on a goin deeper and 
deeper in debt a borrowin money? 

“Speak out,” says I. “Haint that good money?” 

Jobe studied a minit. 

“Y-a-s,” says he, “but haint that fiat money?” 

“Yes, sir,” says I, “that is fiat money, and fiat money 
is the only honest, true money we can have. Any other 
kind is a deceit and a fraud.” 

Jobe twisted and would have got away if he hadent a 
been tied. As he couldent git away he snorted out : 

“What good would that money be in Urope?” 

“The very best that could be made, so far as you and 
your likes are concerned,” says I. 

“Whats its basis? Whats its basis?” says he, “a 
hundred cent gold dollars or fifty cent silver dollars?” 

“Neither,” says I. “And as long as we have so many 
grains of gold or so many grains of silver or so many 
grains of both as a basis, you and your likes will be a payin 
high interest with low-priced grain.” 

“What!” says he, “no standard! How are you to tell 
what your dollar is worth?” 

“ We will have a standard, Jobe, and the best standard 
in the world, and the dollar will always be worth 
one hundred cents, and each cent will be v worth ten 
mills.” 

Jobe looked puzzled, but inquirin like. 

“Now, Jobe,” says I, “dont you know that the law that 
says that the dollar shall be of the value of so many grains 
of silver or so many grains of gold is what makes every- 
thing you raise low in price? Rich people can make the 
gold or silver scarce and dear, and that makes every dollar, 
either paper or metal, dear also, and the dearer the dollars 


174 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM1CRA T. 


the more of your grain or the more of your work it takes 
to git them. 

“Now, what ort to be done is this : Make a law callin 
in all the gold and silver money, and redeem it in paper 
money, dollar for dollar, the same kind of money I spoke 
about a while ago ; give them only six months to turn it in, 
and therearter let neither gold nor silver be money or a 
legal tender. And if any of them Wall Street gold sharks 
want to hang on to their gold money let em hang, and 
they will find that they will have to sell it for old metal. 
Arter the government gits it redeemed let us sell it to the 
jewelers and spoonmakers to make watches and spoons 
out of. 

“And instid of the law a sayin that each dollar shall be 
of the value of so many grains of useless metal, let it say 
that ‘7 he Dollar shall be of the value of sixty pounds of wheat 
in the Chicago market . ’ * 

“Now, Jobe,” says I, “if the law said that the dollar 
should be of the value of sixty pounds of wheat in the 
Chicago market, what would be the value of a dollar?” 

Jobe studied a minit and then looked up sudden like, as 


*Note. — This may strike the ordinary reader as a strange proposition. 
Some of those who have studied the philosophy of money may differ from 
Betsy and claim that the unit of value should be a day’s labor. There are 
various good reasons, however, which make Betsy’s suggestion appear not 
only plausible, but expedient and logical. 

By making a bushel of wheat the unit of value we could establish not 
only the value of the dollar, but also the price of wheat, and of nearly all 
other commodities. As a rule a bushel of wheat is worth two bushels of 
corn, three bushels of oats, four pounds of wool, ten pounds of cotton, etc. 
This price ratio of wheat to other commodities varies very little. Prices of 
other things rise and fall with the price of wheat. 

Betsy’s plan would raise the price of wheat and of all other farm prod- 
ucts, and, consequently, would make farming more remunerative. By 
making farming more profitable it would start more people farming, and 
thus relieve the overcrowded labor markets of the great cities. The farm- 
ers, obtaining better prices for their products, would be able to consume 
more of the products of the factory. The increased demand for factory 
products would give work to the unemployed and raise wages in all the 


BE TSY DISCUSSES ‘ ‘ FI A T ’ ’ MONE ) '. 


175 


if something had broke loose in his mind, and says he : 

“Why, it would be of the value of sixty pounds of 
wheat.” 

“Well, then,” says I, “what would be the value of 
sixty pounds of wheat in Chicago?” 

“Why — why,” says he, “it would be worth a dollar.” 

“What would be the price of wheat west of Chicago?” 
says I. 

“A leetle less than a dollar,” says be. 

“What would be the price of wheat east of Chicago?” 
says I. 

“Why, a leetle more than a dollar,” says he. 

“You are a good scholar, ” says I. “You are a larnin.” 

He tried to git loose agin, but failed. 

“But — but,” says he, “what good would sich money be 
in Urope? Would that money be good anywhere in the 
world?” 

“There you go agin,” says I. “I haint got to Urope 
yit. We’ll go to Urope purty soon.” 

“Yes, but that would be fiat money,” says he. 

“Yes, sir, it would,” says I, “and the sooner you and 
your likes git up to that word ‘fiat,’ and touch your 

industries. Under these conditions, with our money system on a proper 
basis, and with trusts and monopolies obliterated, as they soon would be, 
we would need no labor unions to maintain the wage scale. Labor would 
no longer crouch at the feet of its creature, Wealth, and strikes would be a 
thing of the barbarous past. On the other hand, the workingman of the 
city cannot prosper so long as the farmer is not prosperous. 

Again, if one day’s labor will produce two and one-half or three bushels 
of wheat, and each bushel is of the value of one dollar, then a day’s labor 
will be worth $2.50 or $3.00. Then will wages begin to go up, more help 
will be employed, more products will be consumed, and soon “surplus 
labor” and “overproduction” will be heard of only in the reminiscences 
with which we as grandparents will entertain the curious of the next 
generation. 

It is a remarkable coincidence that at the time this chapter is being put 
into type (May, 1897) news comes over the wires that the Russian minister 
at Washington has submitted a proposition that the governments of the 
United States and Russia jointly fix the price of wheat. — Eo. 


176 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM ICR AT. 


nose to it and smell of it — the sooner you pick it up and 
look at it and examine it, the sooner you will find that 
instid of bein a curse it will be a blessin to you.” 

“Fiat money is money made by you and the balance of 
the people that makes this government. You make it by 
puttin your great stamp on it, and each one of you what 
are fit to be citizens stand ready to defend it and uphold 
it with your lives if need be. It is made by you havin 
printed and stamped on money paper the followin : 

“‘This is one dollar, a full legal tender for all debts, 
public and private, receivable for all taxes, duties and 
customs ; and any money-lender, bondholder or other 
citizen of these United States who attempts to dishonor or 
discredit this bill shall be deemed a traitor, and if found 
guilty of such attempt shall be hanged by the neck until 
dead.’” 

“Dont you think that would be a little seveer, Betsy?” 
says Jobe. 

“Seveerness of that kind — seveerness for them what are 
bound to rule this country for their own benefit or ruin it — 
is what we need, and the sooner we git it, and the more 
of it that we git, the better,” says I. 

So, perceedin with the argament, says I : 

“Now, Jobe, we’ll go to Urope.” 

“Well, hold on,” says Jobe, “leinme loose fust.” 

“Not till we git through Urope,” says I, determined like. 

“Well, shove off, then,” says he. 

I did so by sayin : 

“Jobe, would it skeer you if I was to tell you that the 
money what is good anywhere in the world is the very 
money that we as a people dont want?” 

I put my elbows on my knees and leaned over and 
looked him square in the eyes to note the effect of my 
question. 


BE TS V DISCUSSES ‘ *EIA 7 ” ’ MONE V. 


177 


He looked at me, starin like, for a whole minit. 

Says I : ‘‘How does it strike you, Jobe?” 

Says he: “Betsy, have you been a drinkin?” 

“Yes, sir,” says I, “Ive been a drinkin — a drinkin in 
the sad, hard experience of the last thirty years — a drinkin 
the dregs of poverty, hardship and trouble caused by low 
prices and high interest — caused by havin money so good 
anywhere else in the world that the only way we can git it 
back when once it gits away is to borrow it back, and put 
ourselves in bonds to do it. And, Jobe, when I say that 
the ‘money thats good anywhere in the world’ is the very 
money that we as a nation dont want to use, I am a talkin 
sober, hard sense. We want money that will come back to us 
and buy our wheat and corn and oats and sich, instid of 
goin to Roosia and Germany and France and India and 
buyin their stuff. What we want is money that is the best 
for America, whether it is good for any other part of the 
world or not. 

'“As it is now, Jobe, when we pay the $300,000,000 a 
year interest to Urope, or when our high-toned people buy 
their Uropean clothes and sich and give our gold and silver 
for them, them Urope fellers takes that gold and silver and 
go to Roosia and Germany and France and India and other 
countries and buy what wheat and flour and oats and corn 
and meat and cotton and cattle and wool and manufactured 
goods they need, while our wheat and our cotton and our 
wool and sich lays in the warehouses along our seashores 
a waitin a market. And while it lays there a waitin a 
market our farmers are gittin lower prices and our workin- 
men lower wages, or goin idle, which is worse. 

“Now, if we paid that interest with money that was not 
good in Roosia and Germany and France; if our rich 
people had to pay for their fine stuff with common every- 
day paper money, each dollar of which was of the value_of 


178 


BETSY GASKINS , D1M1CRA T. 


sixty pounds of wheat — money that couldent be melted up 
and made into Roosian money or French money or Dutch 
money or Indian money — if them Urope fellers would have 
to send the money they git from us back here to git its 
value in breadstuffs or grub or clothes or somethin our 
workinmen make, dont you think our warehouses would 
be emptied? And when our warehouses are emptied 
wouldent it require work to fill them agin? And haint 
honest work what our people need and ort to have? 

“So, Jobe, you can see that if them three hundred 
million interest money was made out of paper and sent to 
Urope to pay that interest; if the money spent there by 
our rich people and ail was good greenback paper money, 
redeemable in wheat and flour and corn and oats and 
cotton and manufactured goods of all kinds made, raised 
and produced in the United States, and they had to send 
it back here to git its value, instid of sendin to Roosia and 
them other countries to buy their stuff, and them ware- 
houses would be emptied, you would find more demand 
for the wheat you raise to fill them agin, you would find 
prices a raisin and times a gittin better.” 

Jobe was a thinkin hard. 

Says I : “Jobe, can you see the cat?” 

Jobe was silent. The wheels in his head was a beginnin 
to turn and he was a listenin to their moosic. Finally 
says he : 

“Why, Betsy, if each of them dollars was worth sixty 
pounds of wheat at Chiqago and sixty pounds of wheat 
was worth a dollar, what would our leadin men what make 
a livin and git rich a speculatin in wheat do? They 
couldent force it up nor force it down. What would they 
do?” says he. 

Says I : “They would be like lots of fellers who haint 
leadin citizens are to-day — they would be a huntin a 


BE TS V DISCUSSES ‘ ‘ FI A T ’ ’ MONK V. 


179 


job, and would have to ingage in some honest okepation.” 

‘‘Well, Betsy,” says Jobe, “is that Populist argament?” 

“No, Jobe,” says I, “it haint Populist argament; it is 
the argament of a plain, old-fashioned female woman — 
the one that thinks more of you than all the polerticians 
piled in one pile — and I hope you will think on it.” 

“Well, Betsy,” says he, “if it haint Populist it seems 
to me that it is worth thinkin about.” 

So, bavin for one time held Jobe down to a finish and 
got him to thinkin, I unloosed the rope and straps, kissed 
him out loud on the cheek and let him up. 

He riz up, stretched out his legs and arms, gapped a 
time or two and says : 

“Betsy, Ime glad you tied me down.” 

Then he went out to do up the evenin chores. 

Now, if I could only keep Jobe away from them office- 
seekers and polerticians ; if I could only keep him a 
thinkin, I would have some hopes; but as it is, no tellin 
how soon the good lesson of his wife may be overcome by 
a smooth-tongued canderdate. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 


JOBE BLOWS A FISH-HORN. 

J OBE has been so busy tryin to git Mr. Bushnell, the 
millionair, elected governor, that he forgot about his 
interest bein due at the bank. He stayed to town the 
nite of the election till the chickens were crowin for daylite. 

It was nearly mornin when I heerd the patriotic sounds 
of the fish-horn. 

I got up and looked out of the winder, and there was 
Jobe a comin up the lane, with his breadbasket stuck out 
and his head throwed back, blowin that fish-horn as though 
his life depended on it, and every now and then he would 
stop, take off his hat and holler for Bushnell, jist as loud 
as he could holler. 

Well, he come in and acted the fool worse nor a drunk 
man, till he nearly wore my patience out. 

He said the gold basis bizness had succeeded and now 
one dollar was jist as good as another, and asked me if I 
wasent ashamed that I was a Dimicrat, and all sich fool 
questions. 

Well, he got to bed at last and went to sleep, and in the 
mornin dident want to git up; so I jist let him lay. 

About 9 o’clock a feller rid up to our gate and hitched, 
come to the door and asked if this is where Mr. Gaskins 
lives. Says I : 

‘‘It is where Jobe Gaskins lives.” 

He handed me a paper and told me to give it to Mr. 
Gaskins. 

I took it in and waked Jobe up and got him his “specks.” 

180 



“It was nearly mornin when I HEERD the patriotic sounds 

OF the fish-horn.” 


181 









182 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


He unfolded the paper and 
read it over to hisself. I saw 
he was worked up. Says I : 

“What is it, Jobe — an ap- 
pintment from Bushnell?” 

He looked kind a pale. 
Says he : 

“No, Betsy, its a summons 
to court in the case of Vinting, 
the banker, agin Gaskins; he 
has begun foreclosin proceed- 
ins agin us, Betsy.” 

I looked at him a minit. 
He dident look up. 

Says I: “The official re- 
turns are comin in quite airly, 
haint they?” 

I then went back to the 
door, and the court officer was 
gone. 

Poor Jobe got up in a little bit, lookin worried. 

When he come out in the kitchen I handed him his 
fish-horn and says, says I : 

“Give us a tune, Jobe.” 

He dident offer to toot a toot. He jist looked hurt. 

Well, from that day to this he has been tryin to raise 
the money to pay Vinting, the banker, his interest. After 
payin all them costs in the Billot lawsuit there was very 
little left out of that wheat and hay money, sich as it was. 

He sold our cow, and nearly all our pertaters, and then 
sold old Tom, our only hoss, and borrowed $5.50 from 
Widder Baker, when she got her penshun money, and took 
that $63 down to Banker Vinting and handed it to him at 
his bank. Vinting pushed it back to Jobe and says, says he : 



JOBE BLOWS A FISH-HORN. ^3 

“This is not accordin to contract. The contract, Mr. 
Gaskins, says you must pay the interest in gold. I must 
have gold. Gold— Mr. Gaskins. ” 

Jobe told him he “had no gold, that this money was all 
good, legal tender government money, and he would have 
to take it” 

Banker Vinting told him, “Gold or nothin.” 

Jobe went around to all the stores in town and to all his 
friends and tried to git gold for the paper money, and not 



“‘Give us a tune, Jobe/ ” 

one of them had a dollar in gold to help him out with. 
Everybody said they “hadent seen any gold for a long 
time that “paper money was good enough for them ; that 
they was glad to git even it, these times.” 

So Jobe come home, and he haint got that gold yit, and 
the Lord only knows when and where he can git it. I dont. 
Jobe he is nearly distracted. 

Now, if the law makes Jobe take Billot’s paper money 
for wheat, I dont see why the same law wont make the 


184 


BETSY GASKINS, D I MIC RAT. 


banker take the same paper money for interest, especially 
when a feller cant git any other kind. If the banker wont 
take Jobe’s paper money, all I know is for him to go on 
with his lawsuit to foreclose us — until the court makes him 
take it. 

We cant do anything else. It jist seems the world is 
full of trouble and sich. 



“‘This is not accordin to contract.’” 


CHAPTER XXXII. 


AT COURT AGAIN. 

T HE lawsuit to foreclose us out of our home is bein 
tried to-day. We borrowed Ike Hill’s gray mare 
and driv to town airly, and found the lawyers hangin 
around like buzzards waitin for the arrival of a dead beast. 

They begin to meet us and shake hands from the time 
we hitched in front of Urfer’s big dry-goods store until we 
got clear inside the fence that surrounds the judge’s seat 
and divides the high-toned cattle from the low-toned breed. 
They all wanted to know if we had “ingaged counsel.” 

When I told them that our family had counsel of its 
own blood, in the person of myself, Betsy Gaskins, wife of 
Jobe Gaskins, the defendant, they would kind a sneer and 
walk off. They looked hurt like, jist as a feller does when 
he loses a ten-dollar bill. 

These lawyers seem kind a anxious that the people who 
are bein foreclosed should have “counsel,” but I could 
never see where “havin counsel ” changes the foreclosin 
act any. 

Well, we got inside the lawyers’ field, the officer opened 
court and the judge called the case of “Vinting, plaintiff, 
vs. Gaskins, defendant, for money only.” Says he: 

“Are the parties to the case ready for trial?” 

Jim Patrick, the lawyer, nodded his head and says, 
“Ready,” without even takin his feet off the table. 

I dident have my feet on the table. But when the judge 
looked our way I nodded and says, “Ready.” 

I hadent that word out of my mouth till Lawyer Porter 
riz to his feet, and, addressin the court, says : 

185 


i86 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 



“If your honor please, on behalf of the ‘bar* of this 
county, I object to Mrs. Betsy Gaskins a practicin law 
before this court. 

“I object for three reasons: First, because she is a 
woman; second, because she has not been admitted to 
practice in this court ; third, because it interferes with the 
legitimate profits of the legal fraternity of this county. 

“If your honor please, as you well know, the lawyers of 
this county have no other source of income than from the 
parties to the cases brought to this court, and if women 
and persons who have not been admitted to the bar are 
permitted to practice in this court, our bizness will be 
ruined, and some of us, at least, will have to go to workin 
for a livin ; therefore I object to permittin this woman to 
farther participate in this case, and in doin so I voice the 
sentiment of every member of this bar.” 

I riz up. 


AT COURT AGAIN. 187 

The judge looked at me, steady like, over his specks, as 
if he was a goiu to tell me to set down. Says I : 

“Mistur Court, may I speak?” 

He looked around at the bar. Several heads went east 
and west. The judge thought a minit and says : 

“You may speak.” 

Perceedin, says I : “ Mistur Court, I am the lawful wife 

of Jobe Gaskins, the man you are asked to foreclose and 
turn out of the home he has tried hard to hold. We are 
old people. We are poor. Times are hard and money is 



scarce, and, bein called here without our choosin, we came 
without money to pay anything toward the support of the 
‘bar’ the lawyer spoke about. 

“All we ask, Mistur Court, is to be heard. We want to 
save our old home if we can do so. All I ask is, if there 
is any speakin that can be done to persuade you that we 
hadent ort to be turned out, that you let me do that 
speakin, because I feel that I can tell you what we would 
suffer, and why we hadent ort to be turned out, as honestly 
and as earnestly as any lawyer could who was talkin for 
only a few dollars pay. 


1 88 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


“God knows, Mistur Court, that what I shall say to you 
will not be prompted by a few dollars, but by the love I 
have for the roof that has sheltered us, for the fire that 
has warmed us, and those things about the place that has 
caused a lump to come up in my throat whenever I think 
we may soon have to leave them forever, or when I wonder 
where we would go if you say, Mistur Court, that we must 
be foreclosed. 

“I know I am a woman — a old woman. I haint a 
regular lawyer, but I ask to do the speakin in this case, 
because we haint the money to pay any of these regular 
lawyers to do it, and God knows we have always tried to 
pay for everything we have ever got or had done for us.” 

I sot down. 

The judge set a studyin ; finally says he : 

“Mr. Sheriff, adjourn court until 1:30 o’clock p. m.” 

And that is where the lawsuit is at this hour. I am 
waitin to see if I will be allowed to speak. Yours at court. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 


JUDGMENT RENDERED. 

T HE lawsuit is over. The decidin is done, and we 
are foreclosed. My heart has been so heavy and 
Ive been so troubled that I jist couldent set down 
and write a letter with any sense to it till to-day. 

You dont know how bad it makes a body feel to know 
the place you have looked on and loved as home is a gittin 
away from you — slippin from under you, as it were. 
Everything seems to change. Jobe, poor man, he jist 
sets and studies. 

Well, that day at court, arter dinner, the judge come in, 
took his seat, ordered court opened, and says, lookin at me : 
“Mrs. Gaskins, I have decided to let you argy this case.” 
At that all them lawyers except Jim Patrick, the one 
doin the foreclosin, got up and left the house. 

When everything was ready Jim he got up and handed 
in the mortgage and the notes, and stated that he would 
prove by those papers that last Aprile Jobe and Betsy 
Gaskins executed notes and a mortgage to Mr. Vinting, 
the banker, for the sum of $1,800, with interest at seven 
per cent., payable semi-annually “in gold /” that a few 
days after the interest fell due Jobe Gaskins tendered to 
Banker Vinting $63 in paper money as said six months’ 
interest, and refused or neglected then or at any other 
time to tender gold in payment of the interest as the 
contract provided, and upon this evidence he would ask 
the court to foreclose the mortgage and sell the premises 
to satisfy the claims of his client. 

189 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM1CRAT. 

He then called Banker Vint- 
ing to the stand and had him 
hold up his hand and swear. 

Then he examined him as 
toilers : 

Question. “Mr. Vinting, 
what is your bizness?” 

Answer. “I am a banker, 
sir, a banker.” 

Q. “Did Jobe Gaskins, 
the defendant here, tender you 
the interest due on this mort- 
gage as the mortgage pro- 
vides?” 

A. “No, sir, he did not. 
He offered paper money — 
nothing but paper money — 
while the mortgage and notes 
call for gold.” 

Q. “Is this interest still 
due and unpaid?” 

A. “It is, sir. It is.” 
“You may have the witness,” says Jim. 

Then I examined the banker. He looked very witherin 
like at me, but I dident wither. 

Q. “Mr. Vinting, what kind of money did you give for 
this mortgage and notes?” 

A. “Paper money, paper money.” 

Q. “Then why haint paper money good enough for 
interest on them ?” 

A. “The contract says ‘gold,’ Mrs. Gaskins — it calls 
for gold.” 

Q. “Well, haint paper moneyas good as gold — now , 

since the election ?” 



* I am a banker, sir, a banker. ’ ’ 


JUDGMENT RENDERED . 


191 

“I ’bject,” says Jim, and then he got up and argyed 
that my question was leadin, &c., and the court decided 
that he needent answer it. 

“ We rest,” says Jim. 

Then I got up and stated our case. Says I : 

“Mr. Court, we will prove that Jobe Gaskins sold hay 
and corn to Billot, the miller, to git the money, or a part 
of it, to pay this interest, and took Billot’s note ; that 
when the time come to pay it Billot offered to pay it in 
paper money; that Jobe refused to take it, jist as the 
banker refused ; that Jobe sued Billot before Squire Reed 
for the amount ‘in gold;’ that Mr. Patrick, who is now 
the lawyer a tryin to foreclose us for not payin gold, was 
the lawyer agin us when we was a tryin to git the gold to 
pay with. We will prove that the law made Jobe take 
paper money or nothin, and made him pay the costs for 
tryin to collect gold. We will prove that Jobe took some 
of that money the law made him accept for wheat, and 
more jist like it, to the banker, and offered to pay his 
interest ; that the banker refused, and on this testimony we 
ask you to render judgment agin Mr. Vinting, the banker, 
for costs, and make him take this $63 in paper money that 
I now tender in open court as payment of the six months’ 
interest due.” 

At that I handed the $63 to the clerk. He took it and 
gave me a receipt for the amount. 

Then I put Jobe on the stand and proved that he had 
taken the same money the law made him take for his wheat 
to the banker and offered it to him ; that the banker 
refused to take anything but gold ; that he had tried to git 
the gold, but couldent find anybody that had any gold, and 
that he had done all he could to raise the gold and couldent. 

I then proved by Squire Reed that Jim Patrick was 
Billot’s lawyer, and had argued and proved by Sam Moore 


192 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM/C RAT. 


and Lawyer Buchanan and others that paper money was 
money and was a legal tender for debts, and that Jobe 
was beat in his lawsuit agin Billot and had to pay the costs 
and take paper money. 

Then I “rested.” 

Then Jim Patrick got up and made a short speech, statin 
that “gold was God’s money;” that He had hidden it 
away in the vaults of nature for the use of mankind as 
money. He showed how Banker Vinting was a Christian 
and one of our leadin citizens, and all he asked the court 
to do was to inforce his contract agin Jobe Gaskins. He 
showed how all the bankers and bondholders and other 
money-lenders was in favor of gold and gold contracts : 
then he showed that it was dishonest for Gaskins to 
attempt to pay that interest in any other kind of money 
than gold as stipulated in the contract. 

“It is in fact repudiation,” says he, and he made sich a fine 
argament for gold and agin other money that I put on my 
specks to make sure it was Jim Patrick, the same Jim what 
argyed so loud and long for paper money and agin gold the 
other day, in our case agin Billot for wheat money. 

His argament was so fine and patriotic that I felt half 
ashamed for askin the court to make Banker Vinting take 
the same kind of money for interest as the law made Jobe 
take for wheat. 

Well, arter Jim got done I riz up and stated that we was 
aware that the interest was due and unpaid ; that I knowed 
the contract called for gold. I told the court how I kicked 
agin signin the mortgage last Aprile, when it was made, jist 
for the reason that it called for gold. I showed how it 
was the banker’s doins, and not ourn, that it called for gold. 
I told the court how Jobe and the others laughed at me and 
called me an anacrist and all sich names for refusin to sign 
a gold mortgage. Then I told him about havin to raise the 


JUDGMENT RENDERED. 


193 



money then to pay Con- 
gressman Richer to keep 
from bein foreclosed at 
that time, and about my 
succumbin to their ridi- 
cule and signin at last, 
hopin agin hope that in 
some strange way we 
might raise the gold and 
save our home. 

I told the judge that 
I dident believe “gold 
was God’s money;” that 
I dident think God would 
make a metal to be used 
to turn people out of 
home with ; that if it was 
made for any sich pur- 
pose it must a been the “other feller’s” doins. 

I showed how government officers, through the influence 
of the rich people, had called in the paper money and 
burned it up ; how they had issued bonds agin Jobe and his 
likes to git it to burn. I showed how the same men had 
demonitized silver and brought us to a “gold basis,” all of 
which had reduced prices, made money scarce and hard to 
git, and kept up interest. I showed him how sich laws had 
throwed people out of homes and turned all their earnins 
over to the money-lenders and sich. 

I showed him how we had paid $3,800 toward our farm, 
and how, if he dident make the banker take Jobe’s wheat 
money, we would be sold out, and, at the low price 
land is sellin for, we would have nothin left in our old 
age. 

I begged him with tears in my eyes to make the banker 


He made such a fine argament for 
gold and agin other money.” 


194 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


take Jobe’s wheat money and give us one more chance to 
save our old home. 

Then I sot down, and my eyes would water, no matter 
how often I w r ould wipe them. 

Well, the court cleared his throat a time or two and then 
said : 

“It is a common occurrence for us judges in our official 
positions to do unpleasant things. I am sorry for the old 
people, but the law must uphold the sacred rights of con- 
tract. The contract calls for gold. I will therefore render 
judgment agin Gaskins, the defendant, for full amount 
of mortgage, accrued interest and costs of this case, and 
order the sheriff to sell the premises to satisfy the judg- 
ment. ” 

When them words was spoke I jist felt smothered. I 
felt so queer I hardly knowed where I was. 

Jobe he jist sot there a starin, with a pleadin look on his 
face. We both sot there numb like till the officer come 
around and told us the case was over. 

We kind a come to then and got up. Then I thought of 
the clerk havin that paper money, so I told Jobe to go and 
git it. 

He went, and the clerk told him he couldent surrender 
the money till the case was settled ; that that money was 
part of the court record, and the land might not sell for 
enough to pay the judgment and all costs. 

So we come home and left our wheat money and hay 
money and cow money and the money for poor old Tom 
and all with the officers of the court. 

Jobe, poor man, from the time he left that court-house 
till now he has jist moped around, sighin and moanin. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 


THE LITTLE WHITE ROSE-BUSH. 

W HEN Ike Miller brought Jobe’s paper, the Adver- 
cate, to us day before yisterday, the fust thing my 
eyes fell on was : 

“ SHERIFF’S SALE. — Isaac Vinting, plaintiff, vs. Jobe 
Gaskins, defendant.” 

I tried to look away from it, but, all I could do, I couldent 
git my eyes off from them lines. I turned the paper over, 
but it jist seemed to me that I could see them words all 
over that paper. 

I never had anything make me feel so queer in all my 
life. My head seemed to be goin round and round, and I 
couldent see anything but “Sheriff Sale” — “Vinting — 
Gaskins — Gaskins — Vinting — Sheriff Sale. ” 

“Sheriff Sale.” I had seen them same two words hun- 
dreds of times before, but they never looked like they did 
that day. 

I was all alone at home, and I thought I would never 
live to see another livin bein — I felt so queer. 

Well, I laid that paper down and went out in the yard. 
Arter a while I begin to feel better, though nothin seemed 
to look like it use to — nor dont to this day. 

When I got out in the yard I could see the trees, and 
bushes, and fences, and the house, and the big road, and 
the little stream down over the bank ; but they looked so 
queer. Though I had lived by and among them for years, 
they dident look like they did when I use to think they 
would be around me and near me when I should die. No, 

i95 


ig6 


BE TS ) ' GA SKINS , D I MICK A Tr 


they now looked like some- 
body else’s trees and 
bushes and fence and road 
and sicli. 

I felt as though I was 
not at my own home, but 
intrudin on other people’s 
property, “ trespassin,” as 
them court-house lawyers 
calls it. That “sheriff 
sale” in that paper had 
changed the looks of things. 

I went over to the little 
white rose-bush — the bush 
my little Jane planted the 
day she was four years old — the one she had watched and 
called hers till she was taken from me two years arter. 

I thought, as I stood there by that little bush, planted 
by her little hands, that I could nearly see her little form a 
squattin down and her little dimpled fingers pattin the dirt 
around the roots of that little bush. I remembered how 
she plucked the first rose and come a runnin to me with it, 
sayin : 

“Mamma, mamma, my bush raised this. How pritty!” 

I thought how, every spring, Jobe would pull the weeds 
and leaves from around it, and how a many a time I saw 
him wipin his eyes as he stood by our baby’s rose-bush. 
And as I was thinkin this I thought that before long some- 
body else would own this ground and that bush, and we 
could not take care of it any more for our little girl that 
is gone. I wondered if anybody would stand there arter 
we are turned out and weep for the child that planted 
it. I wondered why it was that the law could tear people 
away from everything they love. I wondered why there 



Little Jane. 



“I COULD NEARLY SEE HER LITTLE DIMPLED FINGERS PATTIN THE 
AIRTH AROUND THE ROOTS OF THAT LITTLE BUSH.” 


197 



BE TS Y G A SKINS, D IMICR A T. 



couldent be some way fixed to make it easier for people to 
git homes and pay for them. I wondered why interest was 
never less than six per cent., and sometimes more. I 
wondered why people who paid interest had sich a hard 
way of gittin along, while the people who got interest got 
along so easy. 

And as I stood there by our baby’s rose-bush I thought 
of all the interest Jobe has paid on this place, of the taxes 
he has paid year 'in and year out, and I got to figurin, and 
I found he had paid for the farm nearly twice over. 

And then I thought of that dream I had nearly a year 
ago, when I dreamt that Jobe could borrow money of the 
county treasury at only two per cent. And I kept on a 
figurin, and I found that if interest had only been two per 


THE LITTLE WHITE ROSE-BUSH. 


199 


cent, since we bought this farm, the difference between the 
interest we have paid and what we would have had to pay 
at two per cent, would have let us out. We would have 
had our farm nearly paid for, and we could have stayed 
here and taken care of baby’s little rose-bush and carried 
the roses to her little grave each year as long as we lived. 

But interest haint two per cent., and we must leave the c 
little bush, leave the trees, leave the flowers, leave all and 
go. Oh! that nearly chokes me. Where shall we go? 
Who will take care of baby’s grave? I cant rite any more. 

I feel so queer. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 


JOBE TALKS OF THINGS THAT ARE GONE. 


J OBE is down sick with “brain fever and nervous 
prostration.” 

The doctor says it all come from his worryin over 
bein foreclosed. 

Jobe jist lays and moans and talks to hisself. He is 
out of his head most of the time. 



Last nite he thought he had Betty, our drivin mare, 
back (the one we parted with last spring to git money to 
pay interest to Congressman Richer). He thought our 

200 



JOBE TALKS OF THINGS THAT ARE GONE . 


201 


little Jane was livin 
agin, and he was 
holdin heron Betty’s 
back, a lettin her 
ride. 

He jist kept a 
talkin fust one thing, 
then another, all 
nite. 

I dident git to 
sleep any, and since 
he has been sick I 
have to chop all the 
wood and do the 
chores and wait on 
him till I am nearly 
wore out and not 
able to write. 

I dont know what 
I will do if they fore- 
close us and put us 
out before Jobe gits “I have to chop all the wood.” 

able to go about. 

It jist seems one trouble brings on another. If the law 
would make the banker (contract or no contract) take the 
same kind of money for interest as it makes Jobe take for 
wheat, Jobe wouldent be down with brain fever and sick 
from worryin. 

I wonder why laws haint made as much in favor of hard- 
workin poor people as rich people who sets in offices and 
dont do any hard work. 

I see Congress and Mr. Cleveland are a goin to issue more 
bonds on the people, and sell them at the post-offices to 
the popular people. Jobe and me cant invest. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 


BILL BOWERS IS ON THE FENCE. 

J OBE is able to be up. We have been foreclosed, and 
ex-Congressman Richer has the farm back. 

We have a notice in writin to vacate these premises 
on or before the first day of March. 

Jobe bein sick, neither of us was to town the day our old 
home was sold by the sheriff. 

I felt bad all that day — felt jist like somethin awful was 
about to happen. Jobe seemed weaker and more restless 
than usual. 

Bill Bowers rode by our place in the evenin, stopped at 
the gate and hollered. 

I went to the door, hopin agin hope that maybe for 
some unknown reason the foreclosin hadent been done. 
But as soon as I laid eyes on Bill I knode our home was 
gone. 

He hemmed and hawed and stammered, tryin to say 
somethin that was hard for him to say. Says I : 

“ Out with it, Bill ; we are prepared for the wust.” 
“Well, Betsy,” says he, “its gone. Congressman 
Richer bought it in, at jist what the mortgage and interest 
amounted to, and you people will have to pay the costs. 
Mr. Richer seemed pleased to get the old farm back 
agin.” 

“Yes, Bill,” says I. “I allow he was glad to git it 
back. He ort to be. He has some $3,800 of interest and 
principal we have paid him on the farm, before lie forced 


202 


BILL BOWERS IS ON THE FENCE. 


203 


us to borrow the 
money from Banker 
Vinting to pay him 
last spring. You 
see, Bill, we paid 
him $3,800 interest 
and principal up to 
last Aprile ; then 
last Aprile we paid 
him $1,800 that we 
borrowed from the 
banker, and some 
$300 of Jobe’s leg- 
icy money from his 
dead aunt, makin 
in all some $5,900. 

Now he takes $1,- 
863 of that money 
and buys it back, / 
givin him the same /' S'** '' 

farm we got from ‘“Out with it, Bill; we are prepared for 
& the wust.’ ” 

him and $4,000 

nearly of money besides that Jobe has aimed by hard 
knocks.” 

“Well, Betsy,” says Bill, “it does look kind a tough.” 

“Yes,” says I, “and it dont look any tougher than 
it is.” 

“I spose not,” says Bill. 

“No, Bill,” says I; “if the lawmakers only knew how 
hard it is to be sold out and turned out of your home, they 
would surely make laws to make money plentier and easier 
to git ; they would surely reduce interest.” 

“They ort to,” says Bill. 

“Yes, Bill,” says I, “ we have done all we could to hold 



204 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 


the farm, and hoped to have a home to stay in in our 
old age. 

“We have give all we raised to Congressman Richer in 
payments and interest and taxes and sich. 

“We have done without many a thing we ort to a 
had tryin to keep our payments up, hopin that our old age 
might be spent here among our neighbors ; but every year 
since we bought the farm times have got harder, prices 
lower and money scarcer. 

“We have raised good crops, Jobe has worked hard, 
and now, arter all the years of hard work and good crops, 
we have $512 less than we had when we bought the farm 
seventeen years ago. 

“ They kept a tellin Jobe that it was ‘ better to have less 
money and lower prices than to have more money and 
higher prices,’ and Jobe and his likes have kept a votin 
for the fellers that told him sich until to-day he is sick and 
sold out. 

“ He has done the votin and the other fellers has got the 
money. They held the bag, and Jobe and his likes 
poured in the grain.” 

“Well, Betsy,” says Bill, studyin like, “ Ive about 
made up my mind that none of us farmers have much to 
show for our past votin. It looks as though, while we 
have been workin hard nite and day, economizin and 
savin ; while we have been a tryin to lay up somethin for 
ourselves in old age, and for our children ; while we have 
been doin all this, and doin the votin, there has been a lot 
of schemers and rascals seekin office and gittin laws made 
to redeem one kind of money in another, and then cornerin 
the redeemin kind, and contractin and destroyin this kind 
and that, even issuin bonds on us to git it to burn, and 
doin everything so they would be able to take from us 
what we were a raisin and savin.” 


BILL BOWERS IS ON THE FENCE. 


205 



hereafter. 


Then, leanin over on his horse, says^he : 
“ Betsy, step up closer to the fence.” 


206 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM ICR AT. 


I walked out to the fence. 

Says he, whisperin like : 

“He tell you, Betsy. Ive made up my mind to try them 
Populists hereafter. I see they have some purty smart 
men in the United States Senate. But for the life of you, 
Betsy, dont say anything to any one about my changin.” 

I jist stepped back a step or two and looked at Bill 
Bowers for a whole minit. He looked at me. Then 
says I : 

“Bill Bowers, I am surprised! I am surprised that you, 
a full-blooded American citizen, a grown-up man, a man 
who has made up his mind to do what he believes to be right, 
and then hasent the manhood to let the world know that 
you are independent, but are afraid that some ofiiceseeker 
or polertician who lives off of you will turn up his nose at 
you! Bill Bowers, I thought you had more firmness in 
you than that. If the party you have been votin for has 
betrayed you, if the officeseekers you have helped to elect 
have used you as a tool, haint it your dooty as a man and 
a citizen to let it be known that you are a goin to quit the 
gang? Instid of bein afraid of them, you should make 
them afraid of you. Thats your dooty, Bill.” 

“Well, Betsy,” says he, “I dont know but what youre 
right, but Ide ruther you wouldent say anything about it.” 

Then, changin the subject, says he : 

“Betsy, where do you think of goin to?” 

“Where do I think of goin to?” says I. “The Lord 
only knows. I dont.” 

At that Jobe hollered for me, and, biddin Bill “good 
day,” I come in. 

Yourn, nearin the close. 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 


BETSY FAINTS. A VISION. 

T HE other day ex-Congressman Richer’s lawyer 
brought a man out to look at the farm. They driv 
into the gate, out through the bars back of the 
barn, across fust one field then another, the lawyer a pintin 
and layin it off, the feller a lookin and noddin his head. 

Arter a while they come back and come up into the 
yard, the lawyer still a pintin, the feller still a lookin and 
noddin. I heerd the lawyer say : 

“We want you to clear this all up. Clear away these 
bushes, and sow the yard down in lawn grass.” 

As soon as I heerd that word “bushes,” I thought all of 
a suddint of poor “little Jane’s white rose-bush.” 

I felt faint like — smothered — and a tear came a rollin 
down my cheek and dropped on the floor before I could 
git my apron to my eyes, and they kept a comin, no matter 
how hard I wiped. 

When I use to read and hear of “sheriff sales” I dident 
take time to think what an awful thing it is to have the 
only place one knows on airth as “home” sold away from 
you. But now, when I know of what it is, I think of all 
the tears and sobs and heartaches and sich that has been 
a goin on around us, and we dident know anything about it. 

Sometimes I find myself stoppin and standin still and 
lookin up in the sky and sayin : 

“ O Lord, is there no other way to do? Is there no way to 
save the women and children and hard-workin men from 
bein turned out of their homes, where they have lived 
and loved and been born?” 


20 7 


208 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 


And every time I think I can hear a whisperin voice, jist 
a little piece away from me, a sayin : 

“ Yes, by reducin interest .” 

And then in a minit or so it seems as though I hear a 
ringin in my ears, in words jist a little further away than 
the other, a sayin : 

“It — will — be — done. It — will — be — done.” 

If I only knew where we are to go to, and what Jobe can 
git to do, I might bear it easiei. It seems as though an 
old man haint wanted to do work, and it seems every 
place is taken up. 

Jobe has been out, ever since he has been able to go 
about, lookin for work and some place to move to. 

Everybody seems to a heard of our bein foreclosed, 
and they dont seem to trust Jobe like they use to, though 
God knows he is as honest as he ever was. 

Well, arter the lawyer had gone all around the place, 
givin his orders to the feller, he come up to the door 
and knocked. I opened the door and says : 

“ Come in.” 

“No,” says he, “ I jist wanted to know if you intended 
to git out by March the fust.” 

Says I : “We will if we can find a place.” 

“ Well, you must git out whether you find a place or 
not,” says he, “as we want this gentleman to move in and 
commence spring work.” 

“We will, Mistur Lawyer, if we can possibly find a 
place,” says I. 

“Well, look here, Mrs. Gaskins,” says he, short like, 
“we dont want any *ifs* about it. I notify you now, in 
the presence of this gentleman, that if you are not out by 
March the fust, I will see that the law puts you out. Now, 
take warnin.” 

And at that he turned on his heel and walked off. 



“‘O Lord, is there no other way to do?’” 


209 



210 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


I am an old woman, and have had many hardships, but, 
Mistur Editure, in all my life I never had anything to 
strike my heart like them words did. It jist seemed like 
everything turned black before me, and I sunk down in 
the doorway and must a fell to sleep, for arter a while I 
woke up, or come to, as it were. 

I had a dream while I lay there that I will never forgit. 

I thought that a great, large man stood before me, and 
jist behind him stood two other good-sized fellers. The 
big man said to me, in a cruel, coarse voice: “ Ive come 
to turn you out.” I thought I bursted out a cryin, and 
turned my eyes up toward the sky, as I had done before, 
and right there, a flyin through the air, come my dear 
little Jane, lookin jist as she did years ago before she died. 
I thought she throwed her little arms around my neck, 
and laid her little soft face agin my cheek, and says : 
“Dont cry, mamma. If no one else cares for you, I do,” 
jist as plain as I ever heerd her little voice in life. 

I clasped my arms around her, and begin to feel a thrill 
of happiness as I once did, when the big sheriff stepped 
up and grabbed her by the neckband of her little dress, 
and, with a mighty jerk, threw her behind him, sayin : 
‘‘Stop this sentimentalism. The law must have its way.” 

I paid no attention to his cruel words, but jumped 
toward my little Jane, who laid there with the blood a 
runnin out of her little head jist above the left eye. Her 
eyes were open and starin, and, with a scream of agony, 
I cried: “Oh, my child! My child is dead!” 

I was so shocked that it woke me up, and I found myself 
a layin there in the door, and, bein cold, I got up and 
went in, all a shakin. 

From that day to this I can hardly think of anything 
but my little girl a comin through the air and throwin her 
baby arms around my neck. 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 


THE PARTING. 


OBE is gone. Last Monday morning bright and 



airly he started for Lorain to find work. He had 


%J hunted and hunted far and near, high and low, around 
here for work, but couldent find any. Some one told him 
there was lots of work at Lorain, and poor Jobe decided 
he would go there. 

He only had $2.95. He said he would take the railroad 
to Medina and walk the rest of the way. 

lie never forgit the mornin he left. 

We sot up late the nite before, talkin. We talked over 
our whole lives — about when we were fust married ; about 
how different times were then and now ; about the happi- 
ness we had then, and the plans we laid. Jobe was strong 
and healthy, and so was I. Money was plenty, and 
people were always lookin for somebody to work for them. 

We talked of little Jane ; of how we loved her, and how 
she used to love us. We talked of when she died, and how 
it nearly killed us ; and then we both jist cried as though 
our hearts would break. We talked of how hard we had 
worked to try to git along in the world, and how our plans 
had failed. 

Arter we had talked a good long while, and cried, and 
felt like cryin, Jobe he moved his chair over near to mine, 
and took my hand in his, and says : 

“ Betsy, weve had our little differences. I know some- 
times I have been tryin. Ive had so much to trouble me that 
at times I was peevish. But, Betsy, I want you to look over 


211 


212 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM1CRA T. 


all my failins. You 
have been a good 
woman. You have 
done your dooty, and 
more than your dooty. 
It nearly breaks my 
heart to go so far 
away and leave you 
behind ; but we have 
to give up the old 
farm, Betsy, we have 
to give up the old 
farm, and I must find 
some place to go to, 
and something to do. 
We must live, Betsy, 
— we — must — live , — 
and I must find some- 
thing to do, to live . 
I hope to be able to 
find work, and have 
you to come to where 
I am before long. 

“ I surely can find 
something to do some 
place. I heerd Jonas Warner, that rich man in town, tell a 
feller the other day that anybody could find work that wanted 
to work. God knows, Betsy, I want to work, and if Mr. 
Warner is right, I surely can find somebody willin to give 
me something to do.” 

We dident sleep much that nite. Jobe wanted to ketch 
the five o’clock train on the C., L. & W. Railroad, and 
was afraid of oversleepin hisself. He had to git up airly 
so as to git to town in time to ketch it. 



** He drawed me over in his arms and 
kissed me.” 


THE PARTING . 


213 


That mornin I had his 
clothes done up in a neat 
bundle. I had washed and 
ironed all his clothes the 
day before, so he would 
have enough to do him till 
I could go to him. 

He d i d e n t eat much 

breakfast. He said he 

“dident feel hungry.” 

When he got ready to start 

he come up to the winder 

where I was a standin, and, 

seein that I was choked up, 

my eyes full of tears, he 

drawed me over in his arms 

and kissed me ; then, 

turnin, walked out of the 

door without sayin a word. 

The moon was a shinin 

bright, and I stood a lookin 

at him as far as I could see 

him. He was wipin his 

eyes and blowin his nose as 

he went towards town. “He was wipin his eyes and blowin 

his nose as he went towards town.” 

When he was gone from 

my view I still stood a lookin for some time, then sot 
down and cried, and kept a cryin every little bit all 
mornin. Everything seemed so lonesome like. Wherever 
I looked it seemed I could see poor Jobe a standin there 
lookin sad like. 

He said he would rite as soon as he found work. I am 
lookin for a letter every day. 

Poor Jobe! Little did he think, or me either, some 



214 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



‘‘Then sot down and cried, and kept a cryin every little 
bit all mornin.” 

thirty-six years ago, that in our old age we would be turned 
from our home by the law of our country. Little did we 
think that when we got old Jobe would have to go 
hundred^ of miles from home, and out among strangers, 
a beggin for work to feed us by. 

Jist to think of all the interest money and payments we 
have give Congressman Richer — some $3,800 all told. If 
interest had been less we would have had our home, and 


THE PARTING, 


2l 5 

had it nearly paid for, and Jobe would not be gone out 
into the world to hunt work. If we had half or a quarter 
of that interest money we could buy us a little home to stay 
in the few remainin years of our lives. 

But, then, interest must be kept up, and the law 
inforced, so as to enable Mr. Richer and his likes to live in 
style and assert the dignity of their citizenship. It has to 
be done, no matter if the hardworkin poor people are 
turned out of their homes and those that love each other 
are parted. 

If Jesus was here and a makin laws, I wonder if he 
would have interest, and foreclosin, and turnin out, and 
all that? 




CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER. 

M Y heart is so broke that I hardly know how to rite. 
This is March 3d, and yisterday arternoon they put 
me out. 

I had about give up their comin, and was tryin to feel 
better, when all of a suddint I heerd a knock at the door. 

I opened it, and there stood three strange men. 

Said the one who acted as leader: “Is this where the 
Gaskinses live?” 

Says I: “One of them is stayin here, and the Lord 
only knows where the other one is.” 

“I am a deputy sheriff,” says he, “and have orders to 
set you out.” 

Says I : “Where is Mr. Richer?” 

“ In Washington,” says he. 

“Where is his agent — his lawyer?” says I. 

“ In town,” says he. 

“Well, dont they have to be here to put me out?” says I. 
“No,” says he ; “the law puts you out for them.” 
“Well, Mistur,” says I, “couldent you let me stay a 
little longer? Jobe’s gone to hunt work and a place to 
move to. If you will let me stay, as soon as he finds it 
He go out without your botherin.” 

“I cant do it, Mrs. Gaskins,” says he; “the law must 
be inforced. The law is no respecter of persons.” 

Says I, pleadin like: “You see, I am a old woman, 
and not stout. Jobe is away, and I am here alone. If the 
law is no respecter of persons, why should it come here 

216 


THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER. 


217 


and put me out of a home that we have paid over $3,800 
toward, jist to please the man that we have paid the 
money to?” 

He shook his head. 

“Where are you a goin to put me?” says I. 

“I am goin to put you out,” says he ; “out in the big 
road yonder, off these premises.” 

Says I : “ Mistur, please dont be so cruel as that. It 

would kill me to sleep out there all nite. Please let me 
stay a little longer — jist a little longer.” 

“ No use a talkin,” says he. “ lie have to do as the law 
says. Its not me a puttin you out, Mrs. Gaskins — its not 
me that is cruel. It is the law, the law, that is doin it.” 

“Come on, men,” says he, speakin to the other fellers. 

So they come right into the house, the house I bad loved 
so well, walkin over the floor I have scrubbed on my hands 
and knees thousands of times, and begin to tear up my 
things and carry them out in the big road. 

I jist felt so queer I could hardly breathe. 

They tore down my stove and tore up my carpet, and 
carried out fust one thing, then another, and sot them down 
beside the road, till all I had was out there. 

When they got it all out, the deputy come in and says : 

“Why dont you go out there where your things are? 
You have no right here. You must git out, so I can lock 
up the house.” 

Says I: “Mistur, is Congressman Richer a goin to 
move in to-nite?” 

Says he, sneerin like: “Why, Lord no; Mr. Richer 
wouldent live in sich a house as this — he lives in Wash- 
ington ; he lives in a fine house.” 

“Well, then, Mistur, let me stay in here till I hear from 
Jobe.” 

“No,” says he, “you must git out.” 


2 I 8 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



Says I, chokin like : “ Mistur, I cant go.” 

“Well, youve got to go,” says he. “ Are you a goin?” 

“ I cant,” says I. 

“Here, men,” says he, “take her out of here and out 
yonder, where she belongs.” 

So one of them big men took hold of one arm, and the 
other hold of the other arm, and pulled me away from the 
winder where I was standin (the same one where I was 
standin the mornin Jobe left), and pulled me out of that 
dear old kitchen door and across the yard and out into the 
big road, where they had piled my things, and sot me 
down on a chair. 

The sheriff had locked the house and follered them out. 


THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER. 


219 


When he came out he says, as though he wanted to be 
friendly : “Where do you think of goin to, Mrs. Gaskins?” 

I looked at him to see if he was crazy or what, but I 
couldent speak, I was so full. 

Says he : “Do you want the boys to put up your bed 
for you?” 

I nodded my head. 

They set my bed up and put two jints of pipe on my 
stove, and then got in their buggy and went to town. It 
was nearly sundown when they left me. 

Soon arter they had gone Tom Osborne come a ridin by 
and brought me a letter. 

As soon as he said “letter” my heart leapt. I knew it 
was from Jobe. 

Tom said he was sorry to see me out here in the road, 
and the man really shed tears. He lives some eight miles 
from here, and wanted me to go home with him for the 
nite. But I jist couldent go. So he rode on. 

Arter he was gone I got a lamp and sot down by the fire 
I had built in the stove, with some quilts around me, to 
read poor Jobe’s letter. And every word seemed to be 
another knife stuck in my heart. 

Poor Jobe he is havin it hard too. I jist cried like my 
heart would break as I read what he writ. I send it to 
you to read. I want you to return it, as it is from the only 
person in the world that cares for me. Here it is — you 
can read it for yourself. You see it was writ at different 
times and places. 

JOBE’S FIRST LETTER. 

Elyria, O., Feb. 22, 1896. 

To Betsy Gaskins . 

My Dear Wife : — I have put off ritin to you thinkin 1 
would be able to rite you somethin to make you happy, 
but to date I cant. 


220 


BETSY GASKINS, D1M1CRA T. 


I got into Lorain the third day arter leavin you. I 
found a big iron works there and lots of men at work', but 
on the sides of the door to their office and at all the gates 
around the big fence they have signs stuck up, readin : 


NO HELP WANTED HERE. 


I went into their office, and asked them if they couldent 
give me something to do. 

They said : “No, we have all the men we need.” 

I told them how I wanted somethin to do at any price ; 
of our bein foreclosed arid havin to git out and all. They 
shook their head and said they “had to turn away hun- 
dreds of men every day,” and told me to “ look around,” I 
“ might find work somewhere else.” 

So I left and went from one place to another, and every- 
where I went I saw them signs and was told the same 
thing. 

I found lots of men huntin work. 

On nearly every street, and down along the river and 
over by the lake, were men a campin and a sleepin in 
railroad cars and outdoors ; cookin by fires built along the 
banks and on the shore; “waitin,” they said, “till they 
could git a job.” 

I got my supper with three fellers that nite that done 
their cookin that way. They seemed to be nice fellers. 
They was from different parts of the country. 

That nite 1 got a bed for fifteen cents, and had forty- 
three cents left. 

The next day I walked and walked and walked to find 
work, but couldent. 

At nite I had twenty-four cents left. Not wantin to git 
clear out of money, I got into an empty box-car and slept 
the best I could. It was cold, and most of the nite 1 had 


THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER . 


221 



At all the gates around the big fence they 
had signs stuck up.” 


Berea and see if I cant find 
send this letter till I git there. 


t o walk 
from one 
end of the 
car to the 
other, 
back and 
forth, to 
keep my- 
self warm. 
So this mornin I 
come down here to 
Elyria, and have been 
from one end of the 
town to the other 
tryin to find work ; 
but nobody seems to 
want to hire me. 

I find men stayin 
out around town here 
too. They say they 
have been all over 
the country, and cant 
find work anywhere. 
I dont know what I 
will do. lie go over to 
somethin there. I will not 


Cleveland, O., Feb. 26, 1896. 

Box-car 1406, Valley Railway. 

Betsy : — I am here. I will finish my letter. God only 
knows what it is to be out of work, out of money and out of 
home. I am not well. Ive had to sleep outdoors, in cars 
and barns and around lumber piles so much that I have a 


222 


BETSY GASKINS , D I MIC RAT. 


bad cold. I have 
not had anything 
to eat since yis- 
terday mornin. 
This cold weath- 
er has nearly 
used me up. I 
got one day’s 
work cuttin ice, 
and got a dollar 
for it. That nite 
I got me a warm 
supper and slept 
in a bed. 

I run out of 
money at Elyria, 
and come from 
there to Berea. 

The first beg- 
gin I done was 
from the farmers 

on the way. I 
“I asked him for something to eat.” g 0 j. Qne warm 

meal and a cold lunch. I was in Berea a whole day and 
nite without anything to eat, so I jist had to go to beggin 
agin. I went to the Methodist preacher’s house one of 
them real cold mornins. I knocked, and the preacher come 
to the door. I asked him for somethin to eat. He 
called to the hired girl and told her to hand me a lunch, 
and went in, shut the door, and sot down by the fire. I 
could see him a settin there a readin the Cleveland Leader , 
with his feet restin on a plush foot-stool, and while that girl 
was a gittin that lunch and I was a standin out there in the 



THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER. 


223 

wind a lookin at that good big fire I thought 1 would freeze. 
My teeth shook. 

When the girl brought that lunch I was so cold that 1 
could hardly take it. It was two pieces of cold bread, with 
some cold beef shaved off and laid between. 

I was hungry and tried to eat it ; the bites seemed to 
stick in my throat, it was so dry and cold. What I did 
swallow seemed like chunks of ice in my stomach, and 
made me colder. I shook from head to foot. I couldent 
eat it, I was so cold. So I put what I couldent eat in my 
pocket, thinkin I would eat it when I got warmer. 

I thought Ide die with cold. No matter how fast I 
walked, I dident get warm. I went on and on till I got 
down where the bizness houses were. I could smell 
coffee and warm meat a fryin. It jist seemed as though I 
had to go in and take some, but I knew I darent. It 
seemed to make me colder. Finally I saw a sign sayin : 


FREE HOT SOUP. 


When I got up to it a man opened the door, a sweepin. 
I stopped, told him I had no money and was cold, and 
asked him if I could go into his place and warm. 

“ Certainly,” says he, “go right in. lie be in in a 
minit.” 

I went in — yes, Betsy, went into a saloon, the fust time 
in my life. Dont blame me. I had to — I was so cold. 
The stove was red-hot. When the feller come in and saw 
how I was shakin, says he : 

“Old man, this is pretty cold weather to be out.” 

“Yes,” says I, shiverin. 

He brought me a chair and told me to set down. Then 
he felt my hands and ears and says : 


224 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


“Why, you are nearly froze.” 

I told him about havin to stay out all nite, and about not 
havin anything warm for breakfast, the best I could, I 
shook so. 

He went and got a big woolen cloth, held it to the stove 
till it got hot, and wrapped my ears up. Then he went 
and got a little glass full of liquor, and told me to drink it 
and it would warm me up. I told him I hadent any 
money, and had never drank a drop of liquor in my life. 

“Well,” says he, “I know you have no money, and, if 
you had, a old man like you, in your condition, shouldent 
pay for it. If you dont wish to drink it I wont insist, but 
I thought it would warm you up.” 

So he set the glass down on the counter and says : 

“lie make you a hot cup of coffee, and then I think you 
will feel better.” 

When the saloonkeeper set the glass of whiskey down 
and went to gittin me some hot breakfast, I seemed to git 
colder inside as I got warmer outside. So, Betsy, I jist 
made up my mind that Ide drink that glass of whiskey if it 
killed me. And I did. Soon after I drank it I felt a warm 
feelin inside ; and as I sot there it jist seemed as though I 
could feel myself a thawin out, with that big fire outside 
and that glass of whiskey inside. I sot there till the feller 
had my coffee and breakfast ready. It was the best coffee 
I ever tasted, — though, Betsy, I always loved the coffee 
you made, — and the fried eggs and the ham and the hoc 
cakes jist seemed to melt in my mouth. 

Well, arter I had my breakfast the saloonkeeper came 
around and sot down and asked me all about myself, and 
you too. 

And as I told all our trouble, about our foreclosin and 
sellin out, and my huntin work and not findin it, big tears 
would every now and then leave his big blue eyes and roll 




\ 



i n 


“‘Well, old man, sich things hadent ort to be. 


225 



226 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 


down his cheeks, and he kept a swallerin every little bit. 
When I had told him all, says he : 

“Well, old man, sich things hadent ort to be.” 

So, when I got ready to go, he shook my hand and 
wished me good luck in findin work ; and when he took 
hold of my hand I felt somethin hard in his, and when he 
let go I had a silver dollar in mine. I handed it back to 
him, and told him I dident know as I could ever return it 
to him. 

“No matter, pap,” says he, “keep it. If you are never 
able to return it, all right, and if you are able and never see 
me, ‘do unto some other human brother as I have done 
unto you,’ and the debt will be paid. Times are hard, and 
I have sich high taxes to pay that it makes money scarce 
with me, or I would give you more. I hate to see you go 
out in this cold ; you are welcome to stay if you wish.” 

But, Betsy, I was so anxious to find work and git a place 
for you that I couldent stay. So that day and nite I made 
it to here. This is a big town, but so far I have found no 
work. Your lovin husband, 

Jobe Gaskins. 

When I got done readin that letter I was cryin out loud. 
Poor Jobe. I wonder where he was last nite. 

Oh, how I love that man that took Jobe in and warmed 
him and fed him! 

I love him though he is a saloonkeeper. I could throw 
my arms around his -neck and cry on his shoulder with love 
for him and for his kindness toward Jobe. 

Well, this mornin the world seems strange to me. Last 
nite arter I had gone to bed and could look up in the clear 
sky at the bright stars, it jist seemed to me, while I laid 
there in my bed beside the big road, that every star was a 
eye lookin down on me with pity. And, thinkin that they 


THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER. 


227 


looked that way, I was not a bit afraid and went to sleep, 
and slept till daylite. 

Hopin God will forgive them for makin and havin laws 
to put sich people as me out of home, I am 

Your troubled and homeless 

Betsy Gaskins. 



CHAPTER XL. 


“THEM ROOMS.” THE “DIRECTOR OF CHARITIES.” 

T HAT mornin arter I wrote you the last time — arter I 
had built me a fire in my stove and got my breakfast 
and washed up my dishes and made my bed— I sot 
down on a chair out there by the big road. I never felt so 
queer in all my life. Not a sound could be heard, except 
over on the hill near Jake Stiffler’s I could heer a cow a 
bawlin. It was awful lonesome. No one to speak to, 
nothin to look at, except my things piled up there beside 
the road. 

I couldent help thinkin of poor Jobe — his beggin, and 
bein cold, and starvin, and sleepin in box-cars, and sich. 

Well, arter I had sot there a while a thinkin, I felt so 
bad that I jist thought I would go up to the house and 
take a look at them rooms and the place we had so long 
loved as our home. 

I felt afraid like to go, but I thought it might cheer me 
up to look into them rooms that I had cleaned and papered 
and swept — the rooms where Jobe and me had set in and 
slept ; the rooms that had sheltered us in sickness and 
in health. 

So I jist tlirowed a shawl over my head, and walked up 
the walk that I had walked up thousands of times. 

There were the currant bushes, the lilac, the dead poppy 
stalks. And all the weeds and posies, that used to appear 
to wear a smile for me, now seemed to turn from me as if 
to say, “We haint yours any more. You have no bizness 
here now.” 


THEM ROOMS. THE DIRECTOR OF CHARITIES. 


229 


And as I looked at 
them and felt that 
feelin, a lump would 
raise up in my throat, 
no matter how much I 
swallered and tried to 
keep it back. 

Well, I walked on 
until I got up to the 
kitche n w inder. 

When I got there it 
jist seemed that I 
couldent look in, but, 
knowin I had come 
there to see them 
rooms, half afraid like 
but determined, I 
slipped over and put 
my face agin the 
glass. 

Everything was 
silent and still. There 
was my kitchen, all 
empty. Not a thing 
to be seen but that 
dear old kitchen — 
empty — no stove, no 
table, no chairs, no 
nothin. There was the winder where I stood cryin the 
mornin Jobe left. There by that winder I had set a combin 
my little Jane’s hair years ago, while she drew pictures on 
them same winderpanes with her little fingers. There w T ere 
the nails Jobe had drove in the wall when we fust moved in ; 
there was the same floor over which we had walked for 



I slipped over and put my face agin 
the glass.” 


230 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


years. Oh, how I longed to be a walkin over it agin! I 
was locked out — I couldent git in. 

So I went from one winder to another, lookin in at them 
rooms. There was the same grate that had warmed us ; 
there in that corner, evenin arter evenin, Jobe had set and 
studied ; there in the other corner I had set and knit, or 
set and read. It seemed that I could see Jobe there now. 
Oh! how I would love to see him there. Poor Jobe! I 
wonder if he thinks of the evenins weve spent beside that 
fire together. There was our bed-room — empty, silent 
and still — no bed, no nothin. There in that room I had 
set, nite arter nite, with little Jane when she was sick; 
there she had throwed her little arms around my neck and 
put her fevered face agin mine the last time. From that 
room Ellen Jane Moore had carried her arter she was 
gone. It was empty now. I was locked out. I couldent 
go in. 

Turnin from them rooms, I walked around the yard, 
lookin at the fence, the well, the coal-house, and the things 
that had been mine. Then, comin to the front yard, I 
come to the little white rose-bush ; it seemed to look at me 
pleadin like. I started to go on, but I couldent. That 
rose-bush seemed to call me back. So I jist got me a 
sharp stick and dug it up, and took it down to where my 
things were and wrapped it up in a cloth. 

When I got back to the big road, and was settin there 
wonderin what Ide do, how long Ide have to live there in 
the big road, where Ide go to and sich, Constable Bill 
Adams come a ridin by. 

When he got up to me, says he : 

‘‘Why, Mrs. Gaskins, what are you a doin with all this 
stuff piled in the road?” 

“Ime livin here,” says I. 

“Well, voule have to git this stuff out of the road,” says 


THEM ROOMS. THE DIRECTOR OF CHARITIES. 23 1 

he. “You darent obstruct the public highway. Its 
dangerous to have a pile of stuff like this in the big road ; 
its liable to scare horses, and somebody might git hurt or 
killed. Its aginst the law, Mrs. Gaskins, its aginst the 
law, and you will have to move it.” 

“The law put it here,” says I. 

“No matter,” says he ; “youle have to git out of here, 
or youle be arrested.” 

“Where will I put it?” 

“ How do I know?” says he. “Youle have to look out 
for that yourself. Git it out of here, and that mighty 
quick, or you will git yourself into trouble.” 

And he rode on towards town. 

Well, as he rode away I sot down and begin to think. 
Here I was, a old woman, set out in the big road by the 
Law — put out of the house we had paid $3,800 towards ; 
the house empty, and now comes the Law and orders me 
to even git away from where the Law had put me. What 
to do I dident know. I jist sot there a cryin and helpless, 
when I heerd wagons comin down the road. I looked up, 
and there come two wagons and four men down the hill. 

They drove up and stopped, and there was Tom 
Osborne, and Charley McGlinchey, and that fat black- 
smith, and Jones the baker, all from Mineral Pint. They 
had come to move me. 

Tom Osborne had went home the night before and told 
them about me bein put out in the big road, and the}' went 
together and got teams and come and moved me to 
town here. 

They seemed to be nice, kind men, but talked like them 
Populists. 

They dident talk much to me, but I heerd them talkin to 
each other, sayin : “Its a shame,” “ a disgrace to civiliza- 
tion,” “wrong,” “wouldent be if the people could borrow 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM ICR AT. 


232 

money from the government like they do in Switzerland,” 
and all sich. They even said : * 1 Th^ time haint fur off when 
it can be done, and the likes of this wont be.” And then 
they said a good deal agin the money power and polerti- 
cians, and sich, until I was glad Jobe wasent there to flare 
up. I was glad he wasent there, though Ide give the world 
to know where he is, or to have him with me. 

Well, they brought me to town and rented me this house 
here at 1412 West Front Street, and paid the rent for a 
month ; then two of them drove off, and soon brought me 
a load of coal. While them two were gone for the coal the 
other two set up my stove, and fixed up my bed, and set 
things around in pretty good shape for men ; then, wishin 
me good luck, and hopin Jobe would soon git work and I 
would git to go to him, they drove off. They all looked 
pityin like as they left. 

I went to the post-office the next mornin to tell them 
I had changed my place of livin. I got this letter from 
Jobe. It jist seems there is no end of trouble for the 
people who are poor. 

Poor Jobe, how my heart bleeds for him. Here is his 
letter. Read it for yourself : 

jobe’s second letter. 

Cleveland Work-house, 

Cleveland, O., March 5, 1896. 

To Betsy Gaskins. 

My Dear Wife and Only Friend: — I am here in this 
prison — put here by the law. God only knows my feelins. 
I am not a criminal. Ive done no wrong. Betsy, don’t 
blame me. Pity me. I am a old man. I have worked 
hard. Ive been honest. Ive tried to do right. To-day I 
am in prison, wearin stripes. I was hungry. I had no 
money. I asked for bread. They arrested me. 


THEM ROOMS. THE DIRECTOR OF CHARITIES. 233 

It was day be- 
fore yisterday. I 
had hunted for 
work all day. I 
had had nothin 
to eat for a whole 
day and nite. I 
was passin up 
Ontario Street, 
near Hull & Dut- 
ton’s big clothin 
store. I saw a 
well-dressed 
man, with a high 
silk hat on, with 
a hand full of 
paper money, 
talkin loud and 
offerin to bet 
$500 that Mc- 
Kinley would git 
the delegates 
from Allegheny County. There were several fellers standin 
there a listenin and talkin, and two policemen. I stepped 
up and asked the feller with the money if he could give me 
enough to git me a supper and bed. I was so hungry and 
nearly sick by sleepin outdoors. 

The feller turned around and looked black at me. Then, 
turnin to the policemen, he ordered them to arrest me, sayin : 

“Ime d — d if I dont intend to break up this beggin on 
the streets.” 

The policemen took hold of me and jerked me out of the 
crowd and pulled me down Champlain Street hill to the 
city prison, and locked me in a iron cage. 



“The feller turned around and looked black 
at me.” 


2 34 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


I asked one of them who the big man was that ordered 
me arrested. He said it was “the Director of Charities, 
one of the leadin city officers. ” 

You may have read in the papers of him a havin a tramp 
arrested for askin him for somethin to buy bread with. 

That tramp, Betsy, was me. 

They say he gits $5,000 a year for bein “ Director of 
Charities.” 

Well, they tried me next mornin and found me guilty. 

I am up for ten days. I cant find any work or a place 
for you till I git out. 

They brought me out here in a wagon with a cage on it. 
They call it the “ Black Mariar. ” There was a lot of us in 
it. Betsy, pity me. Dont blame me. 

Your lovin husband, Jobe Gaskins. 

Mistur Editure, I cant comment. I feel so bad. 



CHAPTER XLI. 


A SORE HAND. 

I AM sick. I have been sick since day before yisterday. 
I have a high fever. My head bothers me. I cant 
rite. Here is another letter I got from poor Jobe. Oh! 
how I wish he was here. I know he would care for me and 
watch over me and do for me while Ime sick. Read his 
letter and return it. They seem so near to me. I havent 
been able to be out of bed much to-day. If Jobe was only 
out of that dreadful place. 

jobe’s third letter. 

Cleveland Work-house, 

Cleveland, O., March 9, 1896. 

To Betsy Gaskins. 

Dear Wife : — I got your letter yisterday. I cant tell 
you how I felt when I read of them a puttin you out. 

Betsy, I little thought, the day you stood beside me and 
become my wife, that the time would come when you would 
have to sleep outdoors in the big road. 

I felt then, Betsy, as though I was strong enough, and 
God knows I was willin, to provide a home for you as long 
as we both lived. Dont blame me, Betsy. Ive done the 
best I could. You know Ive worked hard, and we have 
lived savin, but by some unknown reason all I have aimed 
is gone. Mr. Richer has $3,800 of it. Ive done the best 
I could. 

I have to work hard here in this place, but Ime not 
complainin, nor wouldent complain if I was gittin paid for 
what work I do, so that I could help you. 

235 


236 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT. 



Ime a wheelin coal to the furnace and a wheelin hot 
cinders away. 

It keeps me bizzy. 

There are lots of men in here. A great many for 
beggin — jist as I am. Betsy, dont let the neighbors know 
they have me locked up. I feel so disgraced. 

I feel that if that “ Director of Charities,” that had me 
arrested and put in here, had known that I had feelins ; if 
he had known that I was a honest old man; if he had 
thought of the difference between a old man, hungry, away 
from home and out of money — I say, Betsy, if he had 
thought of the difference between sich a man as I was and 
a man drawin $5,000 a year as a leadin city officer, like 
hisself, I dont think he could have had the heart to have 
had me arrested and sent to prison. 

Lots of the fellers in here seem to be honest, kind- 
hearted people, but poor and away from home. Not bein 
known to the officers, they are arrested and sent out here. 


A SOKE HAND . 


237 


Betsy, I long to see you. When I git out I will come 
back. I cant find any work up here. Nobody seems to 
want to hire me. 

My hand is sore. I can hardly use it. But then the 
feller what watches me work keeps me a goin. He dont 
allow me to stop a minit from the time they let me out of 
my cell in the mornin till they lock me in it agin at nite. 

The way I come to hurt my hand was — I had a dream. 
Ive been a dreamin more or less for some time. Ime so 
tired and my bed is so hard. I suppose I dont sleep sound 
is why I dream so. 

I dreamed I was in this work-house and there was more 
than a thousand other men in, and a comin in from ten to 
thirty a day — mostly for bein hungry and beggin. 

Well, I thought one bright mornin one of the guards 
come through the buildin a hollerin and poundin on a big 
gong, and tellin all the fellers ‘Ho come into the big yard” 
that is in this place. He said that they had some good 
news for us. “Glad tidings of great joy,” says he. 

I thought we all stopped work and went a hurryin to 
that big yard, and when I got there the yard was alive with 
people, men waitin to hear them “tidings.” 

Well, when we all got into that yard two nice-lookin 
men climbed up on the platform that is in the middle and 
one of them says : 

“Fellow-Citizens, Gentlemen and Brothers: We are 
delegated by the proper authority to declare unto you this 
beautiful morning a new law that has been made by our 
brothers, the law-makers at Washington. We solicit your 
undivided attention for a few moments.” 

He then read : 

“ Beit resolved \ by the Senate and House of Representatives, 
in Congress assembled: That the chief aim of human gov- 
ernment should be to secure to each individual member of 


238 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR AT . 


such government contentment and happiness; that this 
can be done only by securing to all the unrestricted oppor- 
tunity to employ the means intended by the Creator for 
earning a livelihood — i. e ., labor. 

“ Therefore be it enacted , That a fund of $500,000,000 be 
provided (by the issue of said sum in full legal-tender 
greenback notes, in denominations of one, two and five 
dollars) and set apart for the purpose of giving employment 
to such American citizens as may have no other employ- 
ment, and who may go before any board of county commis- 
sioners in the United States and certify under oath that 
they are American citizens, are out of employment and 
desire to perform manual labor in the service of this 
government. 

* ‘ Thereupon it shall be the duty of said county com- 
missioners to assign to such citizens work in improving 
any of the public highways in said county, or in construct- 
ing and equipping any public utility in and for said county. 
The wages due each citizen for said services shall be paid 
to him, weekly, by the treasurer of the county in which 
the services are performed, on the warrant of the county 
auditor and order of the said commissioners. A monthly 
statement of the amounts so paid out shall be sent by the 
treasurer of the county to the Treasury Department at 
Washington, and thereupon the sum thereof shall be 
repaid from the fund aforesaid into the treasury of such 
county. 

“On and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful 
for any person to beg or ask alms in the United States 
except in cases of physical disability.” 

Arter he had read this law says he : 

“Gentlemen, we are aware that most of you are here 
because you are victims of the system that has heretofore 
prevailed — many for asking for bread when hungry, others 


A SORE HAND. 


239 


for other offenses, which you may have been forced to 
commit in consequence of having no employment and 
being in want. 

“Our county commissioners have assigned and set apart 
work, on the Shaker Hill road and Kinsman Street, suffi- 
cient to give employment to three thousand men for several 
months, and Governor Bushnell has, by proclamation, 
given their liberty to all inmates of the penal institutions 
of the State (except the penitentiary) who desire to avail 
themselves of the opportunity to work as provided by the 
law I have just read. You, gentlemen, are excused from 
making the oath mentioned. 


/ 



“One nice little place that I thought I would rent as soon as 
I got my. first week’s pay.” 


“Now, all you who desire to work on these public 
improvements will form in line and pass out through the 
office, giving your correct names and addresses, as you 
now become once more respected American citizens. 
Form in line, two abreast, out on Woodland Avenue, 
facing east, and we will take pleasure in conducting you 
to the places of employment. There you will be supplied 
with the necessary tools, and arrangements will be made 
at different places where you can get accommodations until 
you receive your first pay for services. Your compensa- 
tion will be $1.50 each per day.” 



240 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM ICR A T. 


At that he stopped. Every man in that yard was in line. 
It seemed as though a cloud had rose up off from that 
crowd. Every one looked happy, cheerful. 

Well, Betsy, we marched out into the open air onto 
Woodland Avenue, and each one gave his real name and 
address to the clerk as we passed out. 

Then we all went out to the place where they were at 
work. 

There they were — hundreds of them — a plowin, and a 
shovelin, and a haulin, a talkin and a lafEn, a whistlin and 
a singin. 

I looked at several houses as we were on our way out, 
and saw one nice little place that I thought I would rent 
as soon as I got my first week’s pay. 

When the week was up I went, and sure enough it was 
empt)'. I hunted up the owner, and got it for $5 a month. 
I used $3 of the other four to pay my board. 

I worked there three weeks, makin $27, and had sent 
for you. I was lookin for you on Saturday, and could 
hardly wait until you come. I felt young agin. 

Well, when I got to my boardin place on Thursday 
night, I went in and up to my room, thinkin that in two 
more days you would be with me. When I opened the 
door, there you was a comin toward me with your arms 
stretched out. My heart leaped. I jumped towards you, 
throwin out my arms to embrace you, when 

I struck my hand agin the iron bed-post in my cell and 
nearly broke it. It woke me up. Everything was cold 
and dark. You was not there. I felt so queer that I sot 
up in bed, and I sot there a thinkin of that dream — thinkin 
of how glad I was to git work ; thinkin of that law, and 
what a grand country this would be if sich was the law ; 
thinkin of that little house. with green winder-blinds; 
thinkin of you doin your cookin and sweepin, your dustin 










“I WORKED THERE THREE WEEKS.” 


24 1 


BETSY GASAT/JVS, DIMICRAT. 


242 

and cleanin in that little house ; thinkin of me a makin $9 
every week, and a countin the money out to you every 
Saturday night in new, crisp greenbacks ; thinkin of all 
these things, and then thinkin of you a sleepin out there 
in the road, you a goin hungry and without shelter because 
I cant git any sicli work ; thinkin how happy we might be 
and how troubled we are. I jist had to cry. I had to, 
though Ime a man. I sot there on the side of that iron 
bed till I nearly froze ; then I laid down and went to 



“Everything was cold and dark.” 


sleep and slept till half-past five, when the watchman 
came around to waken me up to go to wheelin coal and 
cinders for another twelve hours for nothin. 

I will git out a Monday, and will start back as soon as 
they let me out. Somethin tells me I ort to be there ; and 
its no use me tryin to find work in this place or any other. 
They either have “all the help they need,” or else “dont 
want to hire a old man.” 


A SORE HAND. 


243 


Hopin this will find you well, and that some kind 
person has taken you in out of the big road, I am, Betsy, 
Your lovin but discouraged husband, 

Jobe Gaskins. 

Mistur Editure, the more I think of that letter, the more 
I think of that poor old man a carin for me, and a dreamin 
about me, the worse it makes my head ache and the higher 
it makes my fever. If I had the money I would send for a 
doctor, but I haint got it ; and if I had, I liaint got any- 
body to go. I jist have to lay here. No fire, no one to 
look at, no one to talk to — jist lay here and look at the 
ceilin and think. lie have to quit. 

Hopin your folks are all well, 

BETSY GASKINS (Dimicrat), 
Wife of 

Jobe Gaskins (Republican). 



CHAPTER XLII. 


HATTIE MOORE. 


Tuscarawas County Poor-house, 
Near New Philadelphia, O., March 15, 1896. 



iR. EDITOR: — My name is 


Hattie Moore. My age is 
seventeen. My father was 
a soldier. My mother is 
a widow. I was betrayed 
by one of the leading city 
officials, and while he 
| to-day is performing the 
duty and drawing the sal- 
ary of an office of trust 


and honor, his child and I, its girl mother, are inmates of 
this poor-house. 

I write to let you know about Betsy Gaskins. They 
brought her here yesterday. She is very sick. She is 
delirious and talks a great deal in her sleep, about some- 
body by the name of Jobe, and about their home and high 
interest, and $3,800, and being turned out, and all such 
things. Judging from the wrinkles on her face and the 
hard places in her hands, she must have been a hard- 
working old woman. 

I pity her so much that every now and then I steal into 
the room where they put her. I stayed in there nearly all 
night last night, though I knew it was against the rules. 
But my baby slept well, and I hated to let the poor woman 
lie in that room all night sick and alone. 


HATTIE MOORE. 


245 


I just thought that if my old mother was sick and poor 
and taken to a place like this, I would love any girl who 
would be kind to her and pity her. I would love her even 
though she had been betrayed and was in the poor-house 
to get away from the taunts of a heartless world. 

I asked the man who brought her here who she was and 
where she came from. 

He diden’t seem to know much about her. He said that 
some people found her sick and delirious in a small house 
in the west end and notified the township trustees; that 
the trustees went to the prosecuting attorney and wanted 
to know what was best to be done with her and if the law 
would permit them to hire somebody to go to her house 
and take care of her. The prosecuting attorney asked if 
she had any money or property. The trustees told 
him that she had not; that she was very poor — had 
nothing. 

* ‘ Send her to the poor-house,” says the prosecutor, 
“send her to the poor-house. The best thing to do with 
such people is to get rid of them.” 

So, the expressman said, they came and got him, and 
they drove out and loaded her into his express wagon, and 
he brought her out here. 

“Her name is Betsy Gaskins,” says he. 

It was cold and stormy, and the poor old soul was in 
great pain all night. 

A few minutes ago I went in, and she was breathing so 
weak that I put my hand in her bosom to see if her heart 
was beating, and I found this letter from “Jobe Gaskins.” 
It seems she is a married woman, and he has been away 
from home and is coming back. I send it to you, and, if 
you see him, tell him where he can find his wife. 

Now, Mr. Editor, you had better send this old man’s 
letter back, so that if the old lady gets better she will have 


246 


BETSY GASKINS , D I MIC RAT. 


it. But I don’t know as she will ever be much better ; she 
seems to be sinking. 

Send the old man out as soon as he gets there. 

From a friend to Betsy Gaskins, 

Hattie Moore. 

JOBE’S FOURTH LETTER. 

Akron, O., March 12, 1896. 

To Betsy Gaskins. 

Dear Wife: — They let me out last Monday. I felt very 
strange when they opened them big doors and told me to 
go. When I got out onto the street I felt jist like a feller 
does when he is lost in a big woods. I dident know 
which way to start. But I wanted to git back to you. I 
saw a depot marked “ Woodland Station,” and I went over 
there — went in and sot down. Pretty soon a passenger 
train come in headed south. Everybody got up to take 
it, and, I dont know why £ but I went with the crowd and 
into the car. When the train got started, I thought of 
havin no ticket or money. 

The conductor dident get around to me until we had 
passed Newburg. 

I was lookin out at the big buildin where they keep crazy 
people, when he teched me on the shoulder and says, 

‘ 4 Ticket.” 

I told him I had no ticket nor money ; that I was a old 
man ; had been out tryin to find work and couldent ; that 
my wife was sick and I was wantin to git back. 

He said : “ You cant ride on this train. Youle have to 

git off.” 

I asked him if he couldent let me ride; that I would pay 
him some time if I ever got the money. 

“No,” says he, “my instructions are to carry no one 
without a ticket or the money.” 


HATTIE MOORE. 


247 

I told him the people what owned the railroad was rich 
and wouldent care if he let a old man ride to Bayard. 

“No,” says he, “you must git off at Bedford. Ime not 
permitted to carry you.” 

Well, when they got to Bedford I jist sot still, thinkin 
he might forgit me. But when he come in I saw he was 
mad. He rang the bell, and the train stopped ; then him 
and the brakesman come and took hold of me and dragged 
me out of that train, and when they got me out they give 
me a shove, jumped into the train, rang the bell and went. 



“He teched me on the shoulder.” 


They shoved me so hard that I fell down and struck my 
knee agin a big iron pin that laid beside the track, and 
hurt it so bad that I can hardly walk. Then I come on 
till I got to Hudson ; then I got onto a freight train 
between two cars and rode to Cuyahoga Falls; there the)' 
arrested me for it and was a goin to send me to the work- 
house agin. But when I told them all they let me go if I 
would agree to git out of town in thirty minits. They 
went through all my pockets, to see if I had any money, 



248 


BETSY GASKINS, DIM/C RAT. 


before they told me that. I got out, and now I am walkin. 
I will git there as soon as I can. The soles are off my 
boots, and my feet are wet nearly all the time. 

Hopin this will find you better, 

I am your lovin husband, 

Jobe Gaskins. 



■ i got onto a freight train.” 


CHAPTER XLIII. 


A FAMILY REUNION. 

Tuscarawas County Poor-house, 

Near New Philadelphia, O., March 25, 1896. 

M R. EDITOR : — Your letter asking more about Betsy 
Gaskins received. I will tell you all I know. 
Whether Betsy Gaskins is living or dead I cannot 
say, and I never will know, though what I do know I 
never can forget. 

The strange things I have seen since I last wrote you 
are mysteries that can only be guessed at ; they cannot be 
solved. 

Betsy had been growing worse every day till the night 
of that terrible storm. The rain and sleet and snow, the 
wind and hail, made it one of the most dismal nights I 
ever saw. The roaring in the woods on the hill back of 
the poor-house sounded like a storm on the ocean. In 
every direction cattle and sheep were bawling. It was so 
cold, and the noise, I suppose, kept them awake. 

That night Betsy was worse. She had smothering spells 
that it seemed she would die in, and her suffering was 
terrible. I couldn’t leave her, though my baby was fretful 
and kept awake till after ten o’clock. I was with her 
almost all the time. 

I had let the window down from the top to let in fresh 
air, as she seemed to need it. I had no light except what 
came in over the transom of the door from the hall. 

It was about two o’clock that I was sitting there all 
alone. Betsy seemed to be getting worse very fast. 

249 


250 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 



“Pushing back the hair of the sick woman, leaned over and 
kissed her on the forehead.” 


The roaring of the storm, the bellowing of the cattle, 
the creaking of the window shutters and the moaning of 
that old woman made it sad and lonesome. 

I was sitting there, thinking of what an awful thing it is 
to be poor and homeless and sick and friendless, — thinking 
of the wrong and misery, the cruelty and crime that is 
going on in the world against the weak and helpless, — when 
for some reason I looked toward the window, and there 
was the face of the most beautiful little girl I ever saw, 
looking in just over the sash. Her face seemed to shine, 
it was so bright. Her hair was the color of gold. I 
couldn’t speak. 

That face (for the face and shoulders were all I could 
see) seemed to float in at that window, and for a minute 
stood still, like a humming-bird in the air, in the middle 
of that room, with its eyes steadily fixed on the old woman. 
Then it moved slowly and quietly downward and lit on the 


A FAMILY REUNION . 


251 


bed beside Betsy, and, pushing back the hair of the sick 
woman, leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. At 
that Betsy opened her eyes and clasped the little girl in 
her arms, saying : 

“Oh, my child! ” 

The head said, “Mamma.” 

They held each other there a minute or so, when Betsy 
all of a sudden threw her arms in the air, half rose up 
and screamed at the top of her voice : 

“See! see! Look yonder! Your father’s burning! Go, 
child! Go! ” 

The little girl turned her head, and they both looked 
toward the west wall a second, as though they saw some- 
thing terrible to behold. Then the child rose as quick as 
thought, and, like a flash, went out at the window, scream- 
ing in a tone that made the chills run over me, “Oh, my 
papa!” 

Betsy fell back upon the bed, and seemed to be greatly 
troubled and in much pain. 

I had set there possibly an hour, watching the sufferings 
of that poor woman, and thinking of that little girl, when 
all of a sudden I looked toward the window, and there 
again was the face of that little girl and the face of an old 
man. The little girl was pointing with her chubby finger 
toward the sick woman ; the other arm she had around the 
old man. He was looking to where she was pointing, 
troubled like. 

I can’t say I was scared. I just felt speechless. 

When they had looked a little bit, both of them came in 
at that window — just floated in — and stood in mid-air. 

Betsy was resting easier, and it seemed they didn’t wish 
to wake her. 

I could see more of the little girl than before. Both their 
faces were bright, and the lower down you looked the 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM1CRAT. 


25 2 



There lay Mrs. Gaskins.” 


dimmer they 
got, till they 
became color- 
less. I thought 
I could see their 
feet ? as clear as 
glass. 

Well, after 
they had rested 
there in the air 
a few seconds 
the little girl 
took her arm 
from around the 


old man, and they both settled down beside the old woman, 
one on one side of the bed, the other on the other side, 
and they each stroked her hair back with their hands. 

Pretty soon Betsy opened her eyes, and looked up, 
happy like, first at one, then at the other ; then she 
stretched out her arms, and they both laid their faces down 
beside hers, one on one side and one on the other. 

She seemed to rest easier then, only her breathing was 
slower and each time farther apart. Pretty soon I saw a 
mist or something gathering over her between the old man 
and the little girl. I watched it, and it kept growing 
brighter and brighter, till I could see the form of a woman ; 
then I could see that it appeared alive and looked like 
Mrs. Gaskins, only happier. Mrs. Gaskins began to 
suffer now, and was getting her breath hard. 

Finally the old man and the little girl rose up, and each 
put an arm around this form. The form would first look 
at one, then the other. Then Mrs. Gaskins gave one long, 
hard gasp, and straightened out, and the form broke loose, 
and all three rose up in the air and floated to the middle 


There again was the face of that little girl and the face of an old man. 



253 




254 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


of the room, stopped, turned, and all looked at the bed. 
Then they turned and gazed at me. I couldn’t move. They 
kissed each other and began to move slowly toward the 
window, each with an arm around another. As they went 
out through the window the little girl began to sing the 
prettiest song I ever heard, in a low, sweet tone. 

When they were gone I got up and ran to the window. 
There they were, going up through the sky above the barn, 
the little girl singing at the top of her voice. 

I stood there looking as long as I could see them. I 
heard that little girl still singing as they went out of sight 
over the hill back of the poor-house. 

I felt so weak that I don’t know how long I stood there, 



“In the morning there was found a white-haired man." 


but finally I thought that I must run and tell the super- 
intendent that Mrs. Gaskins had gone. With that thought 
in my mind I turned from the window, crossed the room, 
and was just opening the door, when I happened to look 
toward the bed. And there lay Mrs. Gaskins as she had 
lain all evening, only stiller. 

I was scared. I could hardly believe it. I went to the 
bed. She was cold. She did not breathe. I rubbed my 
eyes and hands and face to try to bring myself to realize 
what it all meant. Then I went into my room and lay 
down beside my baby till morning. 


A FAMILY REUNION. 


255 


I straightened out Betsy’s clothes the next morning 
before they put her in the box. While doing so, I found 
a little rose-bush, tied up neatly in a rag and pinned fast 
to her skirt. 

This, Mr. Editor, is all I know of Betsy Gaskins. 

Of Jobe Gaskins I know very little, unless it was he that 
came with the little girl. 

In yesterday’s daily paper, however, I noticed this item : 

“New Philadelphia, O., March 22, 1896. — Last night a 
supposed tramp entered the Canal Dover rolling-mill in an 
almost frozen condition and asked for shelter from the 
storm. In accordance with his instruction from the com- 
pany, the night watchman ejected him. In the morning 
there was found a white-haired man, apparently sixty 
years of age, lying cold in death on the ash-heap. The 
initials ‘J. G. ’ were marked on his shirt. His face was 
burned so that it scarcely looked like a human counte- 
nance. His feet and body were covered with ice and snow. 

“The coroner’s jury, judging from the time the man was 
refused shelter in the mill and from the amount of snow 
on his feet and body, decided that he must have died 
between two and three o’clock the night before.” 

Could this tramp, Mr. Editor, have been the old man 
who was trying to get back to his sick wife? 

Hattie Moore. 

P. S. — The rose-bush which I found pinned to poor 
Betsy’s skirt I have planted on her grave. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 


AFTER THE WOE, THEN COMES THE LAW. 

ETSY GASKINS’ sad his- 
tory and the terrible fate of 
poor Jobe — for he it was 
whose body was found 
on the cinder-pile — caused 
great excitement, not only 
in Tuscarawas County, 
but throughout Ohio, and 
even in many other sec- 
tions of the country. One 
Chicago paper devoted a 
whole column to portraying the awfulness of turning 
an old man from a friendly shelter on such a cruel night 
as the one when Jobe Gaskins froze to death. Other 
papers in different parts of the Union expatiated on the 
hardships of the old couple from the time the hard hand 
of the law began to push them from their home until death 
took pity on them and removed them beyond the reach of 
man’s cruelty to man. The lesson of their humble lives 
was made the subject of sermons and of editorials every- 
where. 

By the time of the campaign of 1896, the people of the 
United States had become so wrought up that there seemed 
to be a spontaneous demand for the restoration of the 
conditions which prevailed when it was possible for Jobe 
Gaskins and his likes to pay off their debts. So universal 
was the demand that three parties nominated the same 

256 



AFTER THE WOE, THEN COMES THE LAW. 


2 57 


candidate for president. He made a brilliant campaign ; 
but, owing to his being handicapped by a plutocratic, 
mortgage-holding, interest-taking running mate, he was 
defeated. 

Out of the campaign and the knowledge gained by the 
people, however, much good resulted. In many States 
legislatures were elected that were above the corrupting 
influence of the money power. The people were awake to 
their needs, and many laws were enacted for the betterment 
of the conditions of the common people, particularly the 
poor and homeless. 

Ohio, especially, was active in this direction. It seemed 
that nearly every member of the legislature had learned 
the story of Betsy and Jobe Gaskins, and had come to 
Columbus determined, if possible, to provide laws that 
would stay the hands of Ohio sheriffs from turning honest 
people out of the shelter they had erected by their own 
industry and econon^, and to make it easier for people to 
pay for homes. 

It was only the second day of the session when sixteen 
bills were presented in the House and four in the Senate, 
all designed to lessen the hardships of debtors and the 
burdens of the oppressed. 

There seemed to be a unanimity of opinion that county 
treasurers should be authorized to receive money on 
deposit in order to protect the depositor from loss; that 
money so deposited should be exempt from taxation, and 
that legal interest should be reduced to four per cent. 
There was some diversity of opinion as to whether or not 
the treasurers should do a general banking business; all 
agreed, however, that money should be loaned out on first 
mortgage real estate security at not to exceed four percent, 
interest. The bills were referred to a committee appointed 
for the purpose, and thd following is the bill reported back 


BETSY GASKINS , DIM1CRAT. 


258 

by the committee, the chairman of which, Mr. L. W. 
Chambers, of Ashtabula County, became its champion : 

THE BILL. 

“Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio : 
That on and after the first Monday in April, A. D. 1898, 
any person so desiring may deposit money in any sum 
from one dollar ($1) up, with the treasurer of the county 
in which he resides, and receive therefor a certificate of 
deposit or a credit on a pass-book, and all such money 
may be withdrawn on demand unless otherwise stipulated 
in the certificate of deposit. The treasurer may require a 
notice of sixty days for the withdrawal of any sum exceed- 
ing one hundred dollars ($100). 

“Sec. 2. The county treasurers of Ohio are hereby 
authorized to receive on deposit money from the citizens 
of their respective counties ; keep the same separate from 
the other funds received by them ; place the same in a 
special account, to be called the People’s Savings Fund; 
provide such extra clerk hire as may be necessary to attend 
to the business ; lend the money of such fund on first 
mortgage real estate security to such citizens as may apply 
for same, at a rate of simple interest not to exceed four (4) 
per cent, per annum. 

“All securities and title of property shall be certified to 
the treasurer by the auditor and recorder, and shall be 
appraised by a board of appraisers residing in the town- 
ship where the property is situated. 

“Not more than ninety (90) per cent, of the appraised 
value of any property shall be loaned thereon. 

“The trustees of the respective townships of Ohio are 
hereby constituted a board of appraisers of the property 
on which loans may be asked in such township. For such 
appraisement, whether the loan is granted or not, the 
applicant shall pay said appraisers a fee of two dollars 


AFTER /THE IVOR, THEN COMES THE LAW. 


259 

each. At least two of such appraisers shall go upon and 
assess the value of any such property. 

“The borrower shall pay all incidental charges con- 
nected with any loan. The treasurer shall not receive 
more than one per cent, per annum on the money loaned, 
as his compensation for conducting and caring for said 
business ; all interest received, less expense to said treas- 
urer, shall be distributed pro rata to the depositors in 
accordance with the amount and time of deposit. 

“A failure to pay interest for three years shall work a 
forfeiture of any loan made under the provisions of this 
act, and the property shall revert to the county without 
process of law further than order of court upon sworn 
statement of the treasurer as to such delinquency ; and 
the mortgagee shall be permitted to occupy such premises 
for such a length of time as the payments made thereon 
shall amount to a yearly rental of four per cent, and taxes, 
after which the said property may be rented at not less 
than four per cent, and taxes, or sold at private sale at not 
less than appraised value. 

“Any losses sustained by the depositors, through the 
defalcation or dishonesty of the county treasurer, or any 
other officer of a county, shall be paid by the county in 
full, and the said officer apprehended, his property, as well 
as any and all property transferred or assigned by him 
during his incumbency, shall be confiscated, and he shall 
be hanged by the neck until dead, without benefit of trial 
except to ascertain the certainty of such defalcation or 
dishonesty. In such cases there shall be no appeal, pardon 
or reprieve.” 

No sooner was this law proposed than the telegraph 
wires were put in use to notify every banker in Ohio, as 
well as the principal bankers in Chicago, New York and 
other great centers. 


26 o 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


Their hired agents were there. In two days the lobbies 
and corridors of the State-house at Columbus were crowded 
with well-dressed, well-fed, diamond-studded gentlemen 
from all parts of the country, crying out against such a 
law and picturing the direful results that would follow its 
passage. 

Legislators were buttonholed, wined and dined, threat- 
ened, abused, coaxed, cajoled, persuaded and bribed for 
some five or six days. The newspapers of the country 
denounced the bill as “ revolutionary,” “socialistic,” 
“destructive,” “ruinous,” and suggested that “the militia 
should be called out to drive the anarchistic law-makers 
not only from the State-house at Columbus, but out of the 
State of Ohio.” They bemoaned “the terrible disgrace 
that had already been brought upon the fair name of 
Ohio,” and claimed that “to uphold the honor and 
integrity of the State the bill must be overwhelmingly 
defeated.” Brilliant lawyers and leading business men 
were summoned to Columbus to oppose the bill and to 
tell the law-makers how bitterly the people were opposed 
to it. 

All this time from ten to a hundred homes were being 
sold weekly by the sheriff of each county. Thousands 
were starving in Chicago, New York and other cities and 
towns, and all because during all their lives they had been 
paying directly or indirectly from six to ten per cent, 
interest to these same fat, well-dressed fellows who were 
now at Columbus trying to prevent legislation for the 
relief of the people. 

For days it looked as though the bill would be defeated. 
Very few spoke in its favor, but one could hear criticism 
almost anywhere. Two days before it was to come up for 
third reading a thing happened, however, that gave it new 
life. Bill-posters in all parts of the city of Columbus 


AFTER THE WOE , THEN COMES THE LAW. 2 6l 


filled the bill-boards and store windows with brilliant 
posters announcing that on the following night the famous 
actor James A. Herne and his company would play 

••BETSY GASKINS (Dimicrat), 

WIFE OF 

JOBE GASKINS (Republican),” 

at the Grand Opera-house, for the benefit of the poor of the 
city, and that the members of the General Assembly of the 
State of Ohio had been invited to attend free as the guests of 
Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland. The large posters in the 
windows and on the bill-boards showed “Betsy Set Out 
in the Big Road,” “Jobe in Berea,” “The Cinder Pile,” 
and “Little Jane at the Family Reunion.” 

Crowds gathered before the windows and about the bill- 
boards, studying the pictures. Strong men and brave 
women were seen to wipe away the tear of sorrow as they 
recalled and rehearsed the sad tale of Jobe and Betsy 
Gaskins. 

In the afternoon word got out that the legislature had 
under consideration a bill that would make it easier for 
people to get homes. By morning of the next day it was 
the talk of the town. 

The night of the show the large theater could not hold 
more than one-fourth of those who had come to see. The 
doors were closed at seven o’clock, and the performance 
began at once, word being sent to the disappointed crowd 
outside that Mr. Herne would give two shows that night, 
the doors to open for the second performance at nine 
o’clock, and, further, that seats would be free to all, only 
those paying who desired to contribute to the fund for the 
needy. 

Immense enthusiasm, tears, and at times laughter, 


262 


BETSY GASKINS , D1M/CRAT. 


followed the players. As the hardships, trials and dis- 
appointments of poor old Betsy and innocent Jobe were 
made vivid and real by the actors, like conditions in the 
lives of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters or friends came 
to the memory of nearly every one in the audience, and 
tears and sobs proved the interest with which the people 
were drinking in the great lesson that was passing before 
them. Finally, when the curtain fell on the last act f 
instead of the crowd rising and hastening to the exits, as 
crowds usually do, they sat for some moments as if spell- 
bound. Then individuals began to rise in their seats here 
and there, and, leaning over, to converse with their nearest 
neighbors in words and tones of consolation and hope, as 
though some great pall hung over them. Women were 
crying; the men looked earnest and thoughtful. 

This was the condition of the audience when a great 
tumult was noticed in the front of the house ; loud shouts 
of men filled the room, while above all others and on the 
shoulders of two brawny men there was lifted a middle-aged 
man, pale, nervous, yet seemingly calm. Every one seemed 
to be trying to reach his hand or touch his garments. He 
smiled. He was borne forward to the stage and placed 
upon it. At the same time two other men climbed on with 
him. When the larger of the two, who I afterward learned 
was the representative from Seneca County, vigorously 
pounded for order, the crowd settled back in their seats 
and quiet reigned. Then the big legislator said : 

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed to-night one 
of the most wonderful plays ever presented to an intelli- 
gent public — wonderful in the fact that it is so true to life 
that nearly every one in the vast audience knows some near 
or dear one who is only Betsy or Jobe Gaskins under 
another name; wonderful in the fact that this proud nation 
of the United States, after an existence of over one hun- 


AFTER THE YVOE , THEN COMES THE LA W. 263 

dred years, should have a system of laws that works such 
terrible hardships on her citizens, and then claim to be 
civilized or advanced ; wonderful in the fact that these 
conditions exist on every hand, in every direction, and yet 
a nation of Christians has not risen up against them. But; 
good people, my heart swells with joy when I tell you that 
sitting by my side, carried here in the arms of admiration, 
is a man who has set out to relieve the people of Ohio 
from such slavery — who has introduced in the legislature a 
bill which will come up for a third reading to-morrow, and 
which will relieve the poor of many of such hardships as 
poor Betsy and Jobe Gaskins had to bear — a bill, if you 
please, that will make it easier for us and our children to 
buy and pay for a home. 

“Fellow-citizens, I present to you the Hon. L. W. 
Chambers, of Ashtabula County, the chairman of the com- 
mittee and champion of the bill I have just referred to.” 

The audience arose en masse t climbed on seats, cheered, 
stamped and whistled, while Mr. Chambers, without 
a smile, but calmly and courteously, bowed and sat 
down. 

Then the big legislator, after getting the crowd quiet 
again, said that the bill he referred to would enable any 
one with reasonable security to borrow money from the 
county treasury at not more than four per cent, interest, 
and that in his opinion the play they had just seen had in 
part offset the influence of the lobbying bankers who had 
been hanging around the Assembly hall like buzzards for 
nearly a week. 

Mr. Herne then came out and requested the audience to 
disperse, stating that four thousand other people were 
waiting outside for a repetition of the play. 

The audience left reluctantly. No sooner was the theater 
cleared than the second audience made a rush for admission. 


264 


BE TS Y GA SKINS , D 1 MICE A T. 


It was only a few moments until the house was filled again 
from pit to gallery. 

The interest manifested was fully as great as that evoked 
by the first performance, and the acting again was superb. 
At 11:20 o’clock the curtain fell on the last act for the 
second time that night. 

The next morning early people from all parts of the city 
could be seen traveling in the direction of the State-house, 
in street-cars, carriages, on bicycles and afoot. All seemed 
to be intent and anxious. Fully fifteen thousand people 
were on the State-house grounds by nine o’clock. They 
talked, whispered, argued and made speeches. The sole 
theme was Betsy Gaskins and the new law. The antiquated 
crank was there, claiming that it “ can’t be done,” “ better 
leave things as they are.” Every now and then a lobbying 
banker could be seen, slipping along, eyes cast downward, 
as though he felt his guilt. 

When the session opened the galleries of the Assembly 
room were filled with people. The State-house was full. 
The gavel of the speaker fell. The chaplain offered 
prayer. He prayed that right might prevail ; that the 
poor and heavy-laden might be unburdened ; that the 
bribe-taker, together with the bribe-giver, might perish 
from the land; and, above all, he invoked the blessings of 
Divine Providence on the acts of that particular day. 

After prayer silence reigned a while. It was broken 
when a tall, partly bald, large-faced, keen-eyed law-maker 
over in the northeast corner of the hall arose in his seat, 
took a general survey of the house and galleries, took a 
large roll of money from his pocket, and, waving it above 
his head, said in thunder tones : 

“Behold! See that money! There sit in this house 
fifty-three men who know where that money came from, 
and what it was given for. They know it because they 


AFTER THE WOE , THEN COMES THE LAW. 


265 


each have received 
from the same hand 
like sums. They 
came here sworn to 
represent the peo- 
ple who elected 
them ; they would 
sell them into slav- 
ery instead. They 
are bribe-takers, 
and have sold their 
votes and influence 
against the bill that 
comes up to-day. 
This hall for the 
last week has been 
surrounded by a 
horde of lobbying 
bankers and bank- 
ers’ lawyers, buy- 
ing the manhood of 
men that the poor 
may continue to be 
oppressed.” 



Behold! See that money!” 


Then, turning and pointing toward a banker from Cincin- 
nati who sat in the south gallery, he said : 

“There is the man! I defy him to deny that he paid 
me the five hundred dollars I hold in my hand to vote and 
work against this bill!” 

The banker was livid. All eyes were turned toward 
him. He sat looking straight at the legislator, who pic- 
tured the banker as a 4 ‘ thief, ” a “ murderer,” a “corrupter 
of justice,” a “despoiler of government,” and closed by 
waving his hand over the hall and exclaiming that such 



266 


BETSY GASKINS , DIMICRAT. 


criminals had by their own acts put themselves beyond the 
pale of the law. 

By this time the crowd had become furious. The Assem- 
bly arose as one man, many with rolls of money in their 
hands, and a cry went up that was awful to hear — a cry of 
lost manhood found. 

There were repeated calls for order, but there was no 
order to be had. Well-dressed, sleek men could be seen 
hurriedly making their exit from all the doors of the State- 
house, and hastening at full speed in all directions. For 
more than an hour the tumult continued. 

In the meantime some of the spectators had caught the 
Cincinnati briber and a lobbying lawyer from Findlay, and, 
securing a rope, tied them together, took them out on 
High Street, and made them run a gauntlet of some three 
hundred yards’ length through a maddened concourse of 
American citizens. Some had staves, straps, switches ; 
others, lamp-black, flour, Venetian red, and whatever they 
could get to deface and besmirch the fine clothes, fair 
faces and dignified appearance of the two corrupters of the 
law. The pair trotted up and down that space until they 
became so fatigued and crestfallen that they fell prostrate 
and begged for mercy. They were permitted to go on 
sworn promises never again to come to Columbus to bribe 
or influence the people’s legislators. 

After the tumult had subsided and when quiet had been 
restored at the State-house, some forty-eight members, 
seemingly under the influence of a stricken conscience, took 
from their pockets various sums of money and sent them 
up to the clerk as a contribution to the fund for the needy. 
In all there was $21,468. Many admitted that it was bribe 
money, and many others, while not openly admitting it, 
said so by their convicted looks. It was a solemn occasion. 
It seemed as though money and dishonor had been routed 


AFTER THE WOE , THEN COMES THE LAW. 267 

and the spirit of human justice reigned in that hall, touch- 
ing each heart with unseen hand. 

The bill that would make it “easier for the poor to live 
and secure homes” had come to life again. When the bill 
was read there was a murmur of general approval. Its 
champion made one of the most eloquent and pathetic 
speeches ever delivered in the State-house at Columbus. 
He showed how, at six per cent, interest, all the wealth of 
the nation may pass into the hands of the money-lenders 
every sixteen years, and leave of the annual increase only 
enough to support the great mass of the people with a 
meager living. He showed how the bankers had con- 
spired together to rob the nation in time of peril ; how 
they had robbed the business men, robbed the masses, 
robbed everybody by their contraction of the currency and 
their thieving, unjust laws. He said : 

“We have had demonstrated here in this hall to-day 
the manner in which the bankers have looked after the 
interests of the country for the last thirty-five years. They 
know no god but money, and with money they have cor- 
rupted the world. They are of no service to either God or 
man, and yet they demand that both man and God bow 
before their will.” 

He showed how hundreds of millions of dollars had been 
stolen from depositors in the banks of the United States 
by suspension and failure, the result of the most dishonest, 
the most unsafe system of banking known to the world. 
“The American banker laughs when asked for security; 
takes all the money he can get ; breaks up at pleasure, and 
mocks the grief of the poor depositors.” Closing he said : 

“Fellow-legislators, I appeal to you for the passage of 
this bill. I appeal to you in the name of common honesty ; 
I appeal to you in the name of thousands of hard-working 
citizens who, desiring to save their earnings, now have no 


268 


BETSY GASKINS, DIMICRAT. 


safe place to put them. I appeal to you in the name of 
the millions of husbands and fathers whose shoulders are 
stooped under the burdens of high interest and money 
contraction heaped upon them by this conspiring horde of 
money-mongers. Let our motto be: ‘Justice to man- 
kind; equality before the law.’ And let human rights and 
human liberty be our ever-burning beacons of guidance.” 

Then followed the member from Sandusky County. He 
took up the feature of the bill that favored the exemption 
from taxation of money deposited in the county treasury. 
He showed how a tax on money always fell on the bor- 
rower in the way of increased interest; how, if we take 
taxes from money and give the people a safe place to 
deposit, thousands of dollars, now kept out of circulation 
and hidden in the homes of the people, would come out 
and be used in the channels of trade to the benefit of all. 
He then appealed to the legislators to be men and patriots, 
and to spurn with contempt the influence of the lobbying 
money-lenders and corruptionists. 

Many others spoke in favor of the bill, and only one or 
two offered any opposition. It was evident from the 
beginning that the opponents to the measure were routed, 
and when it came to a vote the bill passed with only 
fourteen votes in the negative. 

When the result was announced the scene on the floor 
and in the galleries was one of joy beyond description. 
Liberty, long chained, had broken her bonds. Men grasped 
each other’s hands, and women wept with joy. They saw 
the dawn of the new day of liberty — freedom from debt. 

The bill passed the Senate the same afternoon and 
became a law on the 18th day of March, 1898. 

The news was telegraphed all over the world. The 
county treasurers of Ohio were instructed to begin on the 
first Monday of April to receive the people’s money on 


AFTER THE WOE , THEN COMES THE LAW. 269 


deposit and to loan the same to the people at four percent. 

In every county seat, in almost every town, post-office 
or store, around nearly every fireside, the new law was 
discussed. When the first Monday of April came scarcely 
a man could be found who did not thoroughly understand 
this “law for the common good of the common people.” 
As soon as the doors of the banks were opened, men began 
to draw out their money, carry it over to the county treas- 
uries of the State, deposit it and depart for home. Others 
called at the county treasuries, signed mortgages bearing 
four per cent, interest, and borrowed money to pay off 
their mortgages, held by the banks, drawing seven or eight 
per cent, interest, returning home feeling a thrill of new 
life and new hope. 

No sooner would one borrower pay off an old seven or 
eight per cent, mortgage at the banks than would some 
depositor withdraw the money, carry it to his county 
treasurer, deposit it, and another borrower would deposit 
a new four per cent, mortgage and pay off an old seven or 
eight per cent, mortgage at possibly the same bank. 

This continued for nearly six months, by which time 
most of the loans on which the people had been paying 
seven or eight per cent, had been converted into four per 
cent, mortgages, payable to the various counties. Most 
of the bankers were honest and continued to take in 
money on old mortgages and pay it out to the depositors 
until their business was settled up in full. 

In Tuscarawas County the aggregate of the mortgages 
held by the six banks was $1,048,692. On this amount the 
people saved by the new law an average of three and one- 
half per cent., or $37,703.22. This sum, instead of being 
paid to the bankers of the county each year, was saved by 
the borrowers, and, being applied on the principal, helped 
pay off the burdens of the people. 


2^0 


BETSY G ASK/ NS, D I MIC RAT. 


The first man in New Philadelphia to withdraw his 
deposit was Clem Waltz. He had $ 2,200 in the First 
National. He drew it out at 9:10 a. m., took it to the 
county treasurer, deposited it at 9:28 a. m. ; and at 9:52 
a. m. Seymour Grimes borrowed $1,600 of it on his River 
Bottom farm, and paid off a mortgage against him held by 
the same First National. About the same time Jacob 
Moore borrowed $500 on his house and lot on Eighth 
Street for the same purpose. So by 10 o’clock $2,100 of 
that $2,200 taken out by Waltz was back in the bank, and 
two hardworking, honest, industrious citizens were paying 
only four per cent, interest instead of seven or eight. And 
Clem Waltz had all of Tuscarawas County back of him as 
security for his $2,200, and would receive three per cent, 
interest on his money clear of taxes. 

About 11 o’clock Robert Witt came into the county 
treasurer’s office with $2,000 of the same money that had 
been paid to the bank by Moore and Grimes, and by noon 
it was loaned out to other persons who would rather pay 
four per cent, interest than seven or eight. In the after- 
noon business was still brisker. 

The first day there was $38,000 withdrawn from the 
various banks; deposited with the county treasurer ; 
loaned to the same people that owed the banks ; paid back 
into the banks; taken out and placed in the treasury, etc. 

The first week loans to the amount of $356,828 were 
thus changed. Everybody seemed to be happy except a 
banker here and there. Many bankers, however, admitted 
that they were pleased to see the poor have more chance 
in life. 

In six months’ time all the banks except the First 
National had closed up their business and quit. Business 
in all other lines has picked up. Two of the ex-bank- 
ers are clerks in the county treasurer’s office, while 


AFTER THE WOE, THEN COMES THE LAW. 


271 


the others, being rich, have decided not to engage in any 
business for a while, feeling that it is due themselves and 
the community that they take a long-needed rest. 

Betsy’s dream has, at least in part, come true. Jobe’s 
dream still remains to be realized. Millions of men are 
still out of work. But the people have been aroused. 
They are thinking hard, and soon they will act. They 
will act at the ballot-box, and by their votes they will 
declare that “the chief aim of human government should 
be to secure to each individual contentment and happi- 
ness, and that this can be done only by securing to all the 
unrestricted opportunity to labor.” 

“Work for the unemployed” is the issue on which the 
people will fight and win the battle of the ballots. 

There is much talk that a memorial be erected to Betsy 
Gaskins — not to perpetuate the memory of her hardships, 
but to ever keep the people in mind of the fact that every 
liberty or right we enjoy has cost much suffering, distress 
and woe, and, further, that every advance toward a perfect 
state of human society as taught by Jesus Christ has been 
in spite of selfish and ignorant wealth, and never by its aid. 

Long may the spirit of human justice live, is the 
prayer of The Editor. 




BROTHERS ALL. 

¥ 

B ROTHER of mine, if one should come, 

Should come to your door to-day, 

With the marks of the nails in His hands and the scars 
Of the thorns on His brow, and say : 

“ Brother of mine, I stand in need; 

I am He who was crucified ; 

Will you help me to-day in word and deed? 

Will you stand to-day at my side?” 

Brother of mine, I know that you 

Would give Him this answer true : 

“ You died for me, and what can I do 
But die, if I may, for you?” 

Brother of mine, if one should come, 

Should come to your door to-day, 

With the scars of toil on his hands and the marks 
Of the sweat on his brow, and say : 

“ Brother of mine, I stand in need ; 

I am being crucified ; 

I have sought for work from door to door : 

I am everywhere denied. 

“ Brother of mine, I ask not alms ; 

I have asked no man to give ; 

I but ask for work to earn my bread ; 

I ask the right to live.” 

Brother of mine, what would you say, 

What would your answer be 
To this lowly brother of Him who said : 

“Even so unto me.” 


272 


Henry Benson. 






* -> 












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Part II 




























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The world’s oppressor. 


*74 



PART II 


Present Day Problems 


Edited by K. L. ARMSTRONG 


CONTENTS OF PART Ii. 


V 

PAGli 

I. The Impending Revolution 277 

II. The Philosophy of Money 283 

III. A Bird’s-eye View of American Financial History. By Samuel 

Leavitt 307 

IV. The Eight Money Conspiracies 345 

V. Financial Authorities 352 

VI. Interest and Usury 380 

VII. Debt and Slavery 387 

VIII. The Laws of Property. By Lyman Trumbull 393 

IX. Direct Legislation 401 


I. 


THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou? Speak 
unto the children of Israel that they go forward .” — Exodus 14:15. 

T HE purpose of the following pages is to present in 
compact form a series of articles on money and 
kindred subjects from the point of view of one 
who, realizing that a world-wide economic revolution is 
imminent, hopes that this revolution will be accomplished 
by reason and in peace, not by treason and violence — by 
book and ballot, not by bullet and bayonet. It is not 
intended to make a special plea for the doctrines of any 
particular school of economics, or of any political party. 
The object is rather to place in concrete the arguments and 
principles of many branches of Reform thought which, 
while widely divergent in respect of methods, have a com- 
mon aim in the emancipation of industry. 

The many elements which make up the great and grow- 
ing army of Reform may be segregated into two divisions — 
individualists and collectivists. In the early history of 
this nation the men who had battled for its independence 
were similarly divided into two great parties — one advo- 
cating the centralization of power in the national govern- 
ment, the other demanding for each State sovereign 
independence. The flexibility of our Constitution is 
ascribed to the wisdom of the fathers, who sought out and 
adopted what was best in the ideas of both. So out of the 
apparently conflicting elements of the Reform movement 
will come the ultimate solution of economic problems. 

277 


278 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


The editor is in thorough accord with the collectivists, 
whether they be known as socialists, nationalists or co-oper- 
ators, in so far as they advocate the public ownership of 
monopolies. The people should own and operate the 
railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, etc., as they 
already own the post-office. The people should also own 
and operate the street railroads, water-works, gas-works, 
electric light plants, etc. The notorious corruption of our 
law-making bodies is due almost wholly to their power to 
grant special privileges and to sell public franchises to 
private individuals or corporations. Legislative reform 
that ignores the cause of corruption is never remedial and 
seldom even palliative. Public ownership of natural monop- 
olies will abolish the bribe-taker by making impossible the 
bribe-giver. 

The editor believes also that it is the duty of the govern- 
ment to provide for every citizen willing to work full and 
free opportunity to earn a livelihood, and therefore advo- 
cates government employment for the unemployed. 

The editor further believes that reforms in these direc- 
tions can only be accomplished by direct legislation, and a 
special chapter is therefore devoted to that subject. 

The problem which now presses most persistently for 
immediate solution is that of money. The crying need of 
the hour is to provide work for the unemployed. Tinkering 
with the tariff will not do this, because you cannot make a 
people prosperous by taxation. You can set the wheels of 
industry in motion, however, by putting money in circu- 
lation. 

And what is money? 

Money is the public credit , stamped or imprinted upon, or 
represented by, metal, paper, or any other convenient 
substance recognized by law or usage, and employed as a 
medium of exchange and a measure of values. 


THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION . 


279 


Money is money only so long and in so far as it repre- 
sents the public credit. Moses, as well as the early fathers 
of the Christian Church, undoubtedly adopted this view 
of money when they denounced usury, which is the device 
whereby the drones in humanity’s bee-hive, monopolizing 
the public credit, have in all ages exacted tribute from the 
workers. 

We have seen what money is. Now let us see how we 
can best circulate it. 

Suppose that this country were governed by a czar, an 
autocrat, with absolute power to make what laws he pleased 
for the government of his people. Suppose this autocrat 
should issue an order increasing the standing army to one 
million men, these one million men to be armed, not with 
muskets and swords, but with pickaxes, shovels, etc., and 
to be set to work improving roads, reclaiming desert and 
waste lands, etc. Suppose these men were paid $1.50 a 
day in money issued for that purpose by the government. 
What would be the result? 

One million of men would be taken from the overcrowded 
labor market, and at the end of each week nine million 
dollars would be put in circulation. 

Would it be necessary to pay these men in gold and 
silver? No. Would not mere paper money inscribed 
something like this, in denominations of one, two, five, 
ten, twenty and fifty dollars, answer all purposes? 


This certificate, to the amount of its face 

VALUE, WILL BE RECEIVED BY THE GOVERN- 
MENT of the United States in payment of 

ALL PUBLIC DUES, AND IS A FULL LEGAL 
TENDER IN THE PAYMENT OF ALL DEBTS, 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. 


' 28 o 


PRESENT DA V PROBLEMS. 


Would not these certificates pass everywhere for their 
face value? Would the}' - not have back of them all the 
power of the law? 

And would they not have the same power if they were 
issued and ordained, not by an autocrat holding merely 
a fictitious authority, but by the will and the vote of a 
sovereign people?. Would they not be backed by all the 
wealth of the nation? 

The right to issue money is a sovereign right and should 
be jealously guarded by a sovereign people. To delegate 
this power to banks and money-lenders is as grave an error 
as it would be to confer on a class the privilege of making 
laws for the whole community. 

The volume of money should be regulated to suit the 
requirements of all the people and not the greed of those 
who thrive on usury. 

The use of metals for money is unscientific, and they 
will eventually be relegated to obscurity with the shells, 
pelts, tally-sticks and other cumbrous mediums of exchange 
employed by our ancestors. But great reforms cannot be 
accomplished at once. Gold and silver are the money of 
the Constitution. The act of 1873, which made gold alone 
the basis of credit, and which, by reducing the volume of 
money, doubled the burden of debt, was a violation of the 
fundamental law of our government. The wrong per- 
petrated in 1873 must be righted now. This is the first 
great step in monetary reform. 

Following this, the issue of interest-bearing bonds must 
be stopped forever. The careful student will find that 
interest is at the bottom of all our financial ills. Unselfish 
patriotism must abolish usury by substituting the credit of 
all the people for that of the banks. 

Every physical or moral ill is the result of some breach 
of natural or divine law. For generations w$ have 


THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 


281 


violated the laws of God as they relate to money and to 
land. 

“And if thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay 
with thee, then thou shalt relieve him ; yea, though he be 
a stranger or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 
Take thou no usury of him or increase; but fear thy God, 
that thy brother may live with thee.” (Lev. 25 : 36-37.) 

Moses, the inspired law-giver, the great soldier-poet- 
statesman, who led a semi-barbarous people from the 
slavery of Egypt and made of them a nation wfiich endured 
the longest in the world’s history, wrote these words. 

We also read: “The land shall not be sold forever; 
for the land is mine [saith the Lord] ; for ye are strangers 
and sojourners with me.” (Lev. 25 : 23.) 

Let the Christian world cease bickering over questions 
of dogma and study again the inspired law of Moses, the 
law which Christ came to fulfill, and a solution of all the 
many questions which now vex us will soon be found. 

Under the Mosaic law, slaves were emancipated, human 
life was made sacred, debtors were liberated every seven 
years, inherited property was divided and paternal in- 
heritances were alienated, luxury and extravagance were 
discouraged, and by forbidding land-monopoly and usury 
(in the Bible usury and interest are synonymous) dis- 
proportionate fortunes and vast accumulations of wealth, 
which have caused the decline of the world’s great empires 
and are now threatening the foundations of modern 
civilization, were made impossible. 

Chattel slavery no longer exists in any part of the 
civilized world, imprisonment for debt has been abolished, 
the right of the people to rule is established, but humanity 
is still bound in chains of servitude as galling and oppress- 
ive as in any period of its history. The rule of kings is 
passing away, but the autocracy of money and monopoly 


282 


PRESENT DA V PROBLEMS. 


is seated on the throne and swaying a more imperious 
scepter. 

But the people have it in their power to overthrow their 
oppressors. In this country, at least, we have the ballot. 
The duty of the hour is to study political economy, so that 
this weapon may be wielded intelligently and effectively. 
“Education” must be our watchword. It is only by 
education that we may hope to gain the three great essen- 
tials for perfect liberty and equality : direct legislation — 
direct money — direct taxation . These will establish forever 
the sovereignty of the people. 



II. 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 

il The American people must learn the lesson of money 
or they are lost.” 

T HE word “money” is derived from the Latin moneta 
(from moneo , to warn), meaning “warned” or 
“admonished.” Moneta was a surname for Juno, 
because she was believed to have warned the Romans by 
means of an earthquake to offer sacrifice. In the temple 
of Juno Moneta coins were made; hence moneta , meaning 
either a mint, or coin, or coined money. 

The English word “money” is defined by Webster as 
“any currency usually and lawfully employed in buying 
and selling;” and the word “currency” is defined as “that 
which is in circulation or is given and taken as having or 
representing value.” 

Varieties of Money. 

Until recent times many substances entirely foreign to 
our modern ideas of money were used as measures of 
value, among which were : 

Leather. In Rome and Sparta 700 B. C., and in Persia, 
Tartary, France and Spain as late as the sixteenth century. 

Bark. China used the inner bark of the mulberry tree 
in the fourteenth century. 

Base Metals. Iron was used by the ancient Spartans, 
Romans and Hebrews ; tin was used in ancient Syracuse 
and Britain, while lead is still used in Burmah and brass 
in China. 

All of these forms of money were stamped with some 

283 


284 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS . 


sort of design indicating their exchangeable value and by 
whose authority they were issued. 

Wood \ Several ancient governments used money made 
of wood. From the time of Henry I. (A. D. 1273) up to 
the foundation of the Bank of England, in 1694, a period 
of over four hundred years, England circulated a legal- 
tender money make of wood, called “exchange tallies.” 
The “tally” issued by the British Exchequer was a stick 
or bit of peeled rod upon which notches were cut, indicative 
of an account, pledge or other commercial transaction. It 
was split in such a way as to divide the notches. One-half 
the “tally” was given to the payer and one-half was 
retained by the Exchequer ; and the transaction might be 
verified at any time by fitting the two halves together, 
when the notches would be found to “tally” with each 
other if the check had not been tampered with. Jonathan 
Duncan said that these wooden representatives of value 
circulated freely among the people and sustained the trade 
of England. 

Wampum. One of the prevailing forms of money in use 
among the New England colonies was wampum. This 
was simply strings of white and black beads made from 
sea-shells found along the New England coasts. In 1641 
Massachusetts made these beads a legal tender at the rate 
of six for a penny up to the sum of ^10; and they were 
receivable, at that rate, for all judgments and taxes. In 
1643 the limit of this legal tender was reduced to 40 
shillings. In 1649 the colony passed a statute forbidding 
the receipt of wampum for taxes, and its use as money 
rapidly declined, though it still circulated in a limited way 
in several of the colonies as late as 1704. 

Tobacco. The people of Maryland and Virginia, before 
the Revolutionary war and for some time after, in default 
of gold and silver, used tobacco as money, made it money 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MO HEY. 


285 


by law, reckoned the fees and salaries of government 
officers in tobacco and collected the public taxes in that 
article. 

Peltries . In an early day several of the Western States 
made peltries a legal tender. In 1785 the people of the 
territory now called Tennessee organized a State called 
1 i Franklin ” and passed the following act, which is 
illustrative of similar acts in other States : 

“Re it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of 
Franklin, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same : 

“That from the first day of January, 1789, the salaries 
of the officers of the Commonwealth be as follows: 

“His Excellency the Governor, per annum, 1,000 deer 
skins. 

“ His Honor the Chief J ustice, per annum, 500 deer skins. 

“The Secretary to His Excellency the Governor, per 
annum, 500 raccoon skins. 

“The Treasurer of the State, 450 raccoon skins. 

“Each County Clerk, 300 beaver skins. 

“Clerk of the House of Commons, 200 raccoon skins. 

“Members of the Assembly, per diem, 3 raccoon skins. 

“Justice’s fee for signing a warrant, 1 muskrat skin. 

“To the constable for serving a warrant, 1 mink skin. 

“Enacted into law the 18th day of October, 1788, under 
the great seal of State.” 

Gold and Silver have been used as money metals from 
the earliest times of recorded history. The Bible has 
many references to the use of both gold and silver as early 
as the age of Abraham. 

Paper. The first printed bank notes of which we have 
any record were issued by Palmstruck, a banker of Sweden, 
in 1660. 

Intrinsic Value. 

No kind of money, as such, has any intrinsic value, for 
the instant the material of which the money is made is 


286 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


used for another purpose it ceases to be money. As 
money, the sole value of the material arises from its func- 
tion as a circulating medium ; and even the value of gold 
and silver as used in the arts and sciences will be largely 
determined by the demand for them for money purposes. 
Of recent years the general demonetization of silver by the 
principal nations has depreciated the value of that metal 
about one-half, and there is but little doubt that if gold 
were similarly demonetized it would correspondingly 
decline in value. This was the opinion of Cernuschi. He 
says: “If all nations should demonetize gold it would be 
worth more than copper, but it would not be worth much 
more.” 

Appleton’s American Encyclopedia (XI, p. 735) says : 
“After the discovery of gold in California, Austria, the 
Netherlands, Belgium and Germany all demonetized gold 
and adopted silver as the legal tender at a fixed rate. In 
those countries gold only circulated as a commodity, sub- 
ject to daily fluctuations in value; and as a consequence, 
deprived as it was of legal support* as money, it was but 
little used.” 

Upon the subject of intrinsic value the following author- 
ities are cited : 

“Congress shall have power to coin money and regulate 
the value thereof .” — Constitution of the United States. 

“To coin money and regulate the value thereof as an 
act of sovereignty involves the right to determine what 
shall be taken and received as money ; at what measure 
or price it shall be taken ; and what shall be its effect 
when passed or tendered in payment or satisfaction of legal 
obligations. Government can give to its stamp upon 
leather the same money value as if put upon gold or silver 
or any other material. The authority which coins or 
stamps itself upon the article can select what substance it 
may deem suitable to receive the stamp and pass as money ; 
and it can affix what value it deems proper, independent of 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


287 

the intrinsic value of the substance upon which it is 
affixed. The currency value is in the stamp, when used as 
money, and not in the material independent of the stamp. 
In other words, the money quality is the authority which 
makes it current and gives it power to accomplish the pur- 
pose for which it was created.” — Tiffany , Constitutional 
Law. 

** Whatever power is over the currency is vested in Con- 
gress. If the power to declare what is money is not in 
Congress, it is annihilated. . . . We repeat, money is not a 
substance, but an impression of legal authority, a printed 
legal decree.” — U. S. Supreme Court (12 Wallace, p. 519). 

“The gold dollar is not a commodity having an intrinsic 
value, but money having only a statutory value; and every 
dollar has the same value without regard to the material. 
The gold dollar has not intrinsic value.” — Supreme Court 
of Iowa ( 16 Iowa Rep., p. 246 ). 

“Money is the medium of exchange. Whatever per- 
forms this function, does the work, is money, no matter 
what it is made of.” — Walker, Political Economy. 

“An article is determined to be money by reason of the 
performance by it of certain functions, without regard to 
its form or substance.” — Appleton's Encyclopedia. 

“ Money is a value created by law. Its basis is legal, 
and not material. It is, perhaps, not easy to convince 
one that the value of metallic money is created by law. It 
is, however, a fact.” — Cernuschi. 

Specie Basis. 

Where paper money is made redeemable in gold or silver 
the paper money is said to rest on a “specie basis.” This 
monetary scheme now prevails throughout the civilized 
world. In almost every commercial nation a large portion 
of the currency in use is paper money, convertible in theory, 
at least, into metallic money, at the option of the holder. 
This financial system is framed upon the violent hypothesis 
that real money can only be made of the precious metals 
and that paper bills are not money, but only represent- 
atives of money. Those who are addicted to this theory 


288 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


are in the habit of designating coins made of the precious 
metals as ‘‘primary money,” “redemption money” or 
“standard money;” while paper bills are called “second- 
ary money,” or “credit money,” and are worthless except 
as they may be redeemed in “primary money.” The 
specie basis may be gold or silver or both. Since the 
world-wide demonetization of silver gold only is the basis 
in the leading nations of the earth. 

The specie basis theory is open to the following weighty 
objections : 

1. It is contrary to the fundamental law of the United 
States — the Constitution. 

Judge Tiffany, in his work on Constitutional Law, 
expounding the right of Congress “to coin money and 
regulate the value thereof,” says : 

“The authority which coins or stamps itself upon the 
article can select what substance it may deem suitable to 
receive the stamp and pass as money ; and it can affix 
what value it deems proper, independent of the intrinsic 
value of the substance upon which it is affixed.” 

This learned opinion, which annihilates all necessary 
distinction between “primary” and “secondary” money, 
was followed by the United States Supreme Court in the 
celebrated Greenback cases, and hence has all the authority 
of law. (See 12 Wallace’s Reports, p. 519.) 

2. The specie basis theory is contrary to the facts of 
history, some of which will be recited in succeeding pages. 
Many instances are recorded in which paper and other 
material have been successfully used as money where no 
redemption in coin was promised or possible. 

3. The specie basis theory postulates that a certain 
amount of “redemption money” will support or float a 
proportional amount of “credit money;” as the specie 
increases the paper money may be safely increased ; and 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


289 


as the specie decreases paper money must also be 
decreased — a philosophy that would lead to the absurd 
conclusion that when all specie disappears the people can 
have no money of any kind. Mr. R. H. Patterson, a 
distinguished English economist, truly puts the paradox 
as follows : 

“The gospel of monetary science now is, that when a 
country does not want paper money, it ought to have a 
great supply of it ; and when it does require paper money 
it shall have none. When a country has enough of specie 
it ought to double its currency by issuing an equal amount 
of bank notes ; and when there is no specie there should 
likewise be no notes. Is it necessary to discuss such a 
theory? In order to be rejected it needs only to be stated ; 
in order to be rejected it only needs to be understood. It 
is a theoretical monstrosity against which common sense 
revolts — a burlesque of reason which even the present 
generation will live to laugh at.” 

4. The specie basis is insufficient in volume to redeem 
the credit money which is necessarily used in business. 
The entire circulating medium of the United States is, 
approximately, sixteen hundred millions of dollars, of 
which about one-third is gold, one-third silver and one- 
third paper. Since silver was demonetized it is now only 
credit money; hence we have but one dollar of redemption 
money (gold) with which to redeem two of credit money, 
or, taking into consideration, as we should, the vast 
volume of checks, drafts and other credits which must 
finally be redeemed in gold, it is perfectly apparent that 
the United States has not one dollar of redemption money 
with which to redeem one hundred dollars of credit — and 
thus the whole theory of redemption becomes a mere 
figment incapable of practical realization. And what is 
true of the United States is true of all other countries. 

5. The specie basis is a breeder of panics. In times of 
prosperity and confidence credits are safely increased to 


290 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


accommodate the increasing volume of business, and the 
specie basis is sufficient merely because it is not put to the 
test, the people preferring paper money because of its 
superior convenience. But at such a time a pebble may 
start an avalanche. A startling failure occurs somewhere, 
creditors press for liquidation, the banks are besieged, and, 
being unable to redeem their promises to pay gold, they 
suspend — and the panic is complete. Such is the recur- 
rent history of finance in all civilized lands. 

Charles Sears, an eminent authority, says of the gold 
basis : 

“Within the last fifty years, say, a money crisis has 
come quite regularly every ten years. Something — any 
one of a dozen causes, few know what — sets gold to flowing 
out. Fifty millions withdrawn in a short time from its 
usual place of deposit is quite sufficient to make the whole 
volume of coin disappear from ordinary circulation as com- 
pletely as if it had never existed. The metallic basis is 
gone — slipped out ; the pivot of the system is dislocated ; 
somebody wanted it and took it, and the pyramid tumbles 
down, burying in its ruins three-fourths of a business 
generation.” 

To the same effect is the opinion of the famous American 
jurist, Judge Walker. He says: 

“ The whole paper scheme is founded on the presump- 
tion that the holders of these bills will not generally ask 
for specie at the same time ; and, therefore, the amount of 
specie kept in reserve bears but a small proportion to the 
notes in circulation. And this is the great evil of the 
system. A general and simultaneous demand for specie 
cannot possibly be met, and disaster must follow. To 
enforce a universal performance of these promises is to 
insure their being broken. Every sudden panic, therefore, 
must produce wide-spread calamity.” — Walker's American 
Law , p. 152. 

6. The specie basis affords a means by which greedy 
speculators work “a corner” in gold and thus extort large 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


291 


sums in profits which the people eventually have to pay. 
The laws and official rulings, for instance, which require 
the maintenance of a gold reserve in the Federal treasury 
and the payment of duties and interest on the public debt 
in gold, create a special and imperative demand for the 
yellow metal ; and as the supply for that kind of money is 
almost entirely in the hands of a few great banking firms, 
the latter can, at their pleasure, extort such terms as they 
please when applied to for gold. An instance of the kind 
occurred on Feb. 8, 1895. On that day, in order to main- 
tain its gold reserve, the United States government 
purchased of M. Rothschild & Sons and J. P. Morgan & 
Co., bankers of London, 3,500,000 ounces of standard gold 
coin of the United States at the rate of $17.80441 per 
ounce, and paid for it in United States four per cent, 
thirty-year coupon or registered bonds, interest payable 
quarterly. These bonds were taken by the British bankers 
at $1.04, and were sold by them within ten days at $1.18, 
by which the foreign gold exploiters made a net profit of 
about eight million dollars — to be eventually paid by the 
people. 

7. The specie basis must inevitably become more and 
more insufficient with the lapse of time, and the disasters 
due to it in the past become more frequent and distressing. 
The population of the world is increasing, barbarous 
nations are becoming commercial, and commercial nations 
are extending their commerce with unexampled rapidity 
from year to year. With this increasing business must 
come a necessity for a corresponding increase in the 
medium of exchange — money. But no material increase 
of the precious metals is possible. On the contrary, as the 
mines successively become exhausted, or deeper and more 
difficult to work, it is clear that the annual supply of gold 
and silver must become increasingly insufficient to replace 


292 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


that which has been lost or consumed in the arts and 
sciences ; and hence the difficulties of the specie basis will 
of necessity become more and more aggravated as time 
goes on. 

Considerations such as the foregoing have led to the 
rapid development of a new school of finance which, reject- 
ing the specie basis as antiquated and no longer tenable, 
professes to find a sufficient guarantee for the stability of 
money in 

The Legal Tender Basis. 

President Grant said : 

“My own judgment is that a specie basis cannot be 
reached and maintained until our exports exclusive of gold 
pay for our imports, interest due abroad, and other specie 
obligations, or so nearly as to leave an appreciable accumu- 
lation of the precious metals in the country from the 
product of our mines.” — Message , Dec. 1, 1873 . 

Plentiful experience has demonstrated that a paper 
money based upon the authority, faith and credit of the 
government and made by law a full legal tender for all 
debts will serve all the purposes of a staple circulating 
medium as effectually as gold itself. 

The effectiveness of legal-tender paper depends upon 
two circumstances : 

1. Government can by law compel the people to take 
it in satisfaction of private debts, by refusing to enforce 
contracts payable in any other kind of money. 

2. The government may receive such legal-tender paper 
in satisfaction of all kinds of taxes and duties, thus giving 
such money a positive value equal to gold. 

The United States Supreme Court, in the celebrated 
Greenback cases, says : 

“Making these notes legal tender gave them new uses 
(or functions), and it requires no argument to prove the 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


293 

value of things as in proportion to the uses to which they 
may be applied .” — 12 Wallace Reports , p. 519. 

Benjamin Franklin, defending the Pennsylvania colonial 
paper money before a committee of the English Par- 
liament, in 1764, said: 

“On the whole no method has hitherto been found to 
establish a medium of trade, in lieu of coin, equal in all 
its advantages to bills of credit founded on sufficient taxes 
for discharging it at the end of the time, and in the mean- 
time made a general legal tender.” 

Thomas Jefferson, in his letter to Mr. Epps, said of 
government paper money: 

“It is the only resource which can never fail them, and 
it is an abundant one for every necessary purpose. 
Treasury bills, bottomed on taxes, bearing or not bearing 
interest, as may be found necessary, thrown into circula- 
tion, will take the place of so much gold or silver.” 

President Jackson, in his message, 1829, said: 

“I submit to the wisdom of the legislature whether a 
national one [currency] founded on the credit of the 
government and its resources might not be devised.” 

John C. Calhoun, in a speech in the United States 
Senate, December 18, 1837, said: 

“It appears to me, after bestowing the best reflection I 
can give the subject, that no convertible paper — that no 
paper that rests upon a promise to pay — is suitable for a 
currency. It is the form of credit paper in transactions 
between men, but not for a standard of value to perform 
exchanges generally, which constitutes the appropriate 
functions of money or currency. No one can doubt but 
that the credit of the government is better than that of any 
bank — more staple and safe. I now undertake to affirm, and 
without the least fear that I can be answered, that paper 
money issued by the government, to receive it for all dues, 
would form a perfect circulation which would not be abused 
by the government; that it would be uniform with the 
metals themselves.” 

Legal-tender paper money is usually issued in times of 


294 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


war, when gold and silver are horded or exported from the 
country; and, as a consequence, such legal tender is put 
to the severest possible tests, those of an imperilled gov- 
ernment, disturbed industry and impeded foreign trade. 
Nevertheless, history abounds with instances to prove the 
entire sufficiency of this kind of money. 

In 1156 the Republic of Venice established a system of 
paper credits which served as the principal circulating 
medium of that country until 1797. This money was 
always at par and frequently at a premium. In 1770 the 
Russian government issued its own notes, which sustained 
the government through two wars and commanded a 
premium over coin. In 1797 to 1823 England issued 
$225,000,000 full legal-tender paper with which to carry 
on war against Napoleon. In his “Political Economy,” 
John S. Mill says of these notes: “After they were made 
a legal tender they never depreciated a particle.” 

During the colonial period of American history several 
of the colonies issued and successfully maintained legal- 
tender paper money. One instance is illustrative of them 
all. In 1739 Pennsylvania issued $400,000 in legal-tender 
paper not redeemable in coin, but receivable for taxes, 
which was loaned directly to the people on security of 
land and plate. This money continued in circulation until 
it was prohibited by the British government in 1775. 
Commenting on the success of this system, Dr. Franklin 
said: “Between the years 1740 and 1775, while abund- 
ance reigned in Pennsylvania and there was peace in all 
her borders, a more happy and prosperous population 
could not, perhaps, be found on this globe.” 

During the Franco-German war France issued an enor- 
mous volume of legal-tender paper money, of which Victor 
Bonnet, the eminent French economist, says: “In the 
midst of the greatest calamities that ever befell a nation, 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


295 


with an enormous ransom to pay a foreign nation, and 
with great domestic losses to repair, a credit circulation 
was maintained four times as large as its base, without 
depreciation. This circulation reached $600,000,000.” 

During the war of the rebellion in the 'United States 
(1861-5) the government issued a volume of legal-tender 
“greenbacks” which, on July 1st, 1865, was outstanding 
to the amount of $432,687,966. 

The first $60,000,000 of this paper money, issued under 
authority of the acts of July 17th and August 5th, 1861, 
and February 12th, 1862, called “demand notes,” was 
made a full legal tender for all debts public and private. 
This issue never fell below and often was above par as 
compared with gold. In a speech delivered in the United 
States Senate, July 4U1, 1862, Hon. John Sherman said of 
these “demand notes”: 

“The notes are now held and hoarded. The first issue 
of $60,000,000 were issued with the right of being con- 
verted into six per cent, twenty-year bonds and with the 
privilege of being paid for duties in customs. They are 
now far above par and hoarded.” 

In Schuckers’ Life of Salmon P. Chase, p. 225, the 
author says : 

“The demand notes, being receivable for customs the 
same as coin, kept pace with the advance in the price of 
coin.” 

All of the greenbacks except the first $60,000,000 were 
purposely depreciated by the “exception clause;” that is, 
they were made a legal tender for all debts, public and 
private, except duties on imports and interest on the public 
debt , which latter were required to be paid in coin. This 
exception clause created a special demand for coin, and as 
a consequence metallic money rose to a great premium, at 
one time (July, 1864) being at a premium of $2.85 in 
greenbacks to $1 in coin. That these greenbacks were 


296 PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 

purposely depreciated stands upon the evidence of Hon. 
John Sherman, who, in a report as chairman of the Senate 
Finance Committee, made on the 12th of November, 1867, 
said : “But it was found that with such a restriction upon 
the notes the bonds could not be negotiated, and it became 
necessary to depreciate the notes in order to make a 
market for the bonds.” 

Speaking of the amendment by which the “exception 
clause” was passed, Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, said in a 
speech delivered in the House, February 20th, 1862: 

“ It has all the bad qualities that its enemies charged in 
the original bill and none of its benefits. It now creates 
money and by its very terms declares it a depreciated cur- 
rency. It makes two classes of money — one for the banks 
and brokers, and another for the people. It discriminates 
between the rights of different classes of creditors, allowing 
the rich capitalists to demand gold, and compelling the 
ordinary lender of money on individual security to receive 
notes which the government had purposely discredited. 

. . . . But now comes the main clause. All classes of 
people shall take these notes at par for every article of 
trade or contract unless they have money enough to buy 
United States bonds, and then they shall be paid in gold. 
Who is that favored class? The bankers and brokers, and 
nobody else.” 

This conspiracy of the lawmakers, by which the soldier 
in the field was paid in depreciated greenbacks while the 
Wall Street usurer received gold, did not deprive the paper 
money of its splendid functions. While coin rose to a 
great premium, owing to the special use made of it in 
payment of customs and interest on the public debt, the 
legal-tender money carried on the great war and conducted 
the business of the most prolific and prosperous epoch in 
the history of the United States. 

As a matter of fact the greenbacks, discredited by legis- 
lation as they were, did not depreciate in comparison with 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


297 


commodities, but gold appreciated owing to the special 
demand created for it by law. The people never lost 
confidence in the government paper money, even in the 
darkest hours of the panic of 1873, as shown by the 
language of President Grant. He said : 

1 ‘The experience of the present panic has proven that 
the currency of the country, based, as it is, upon the 
credit of the country, is the best that has ever been devised. 
Usually, in times of such trials, currency has become 
worthless or so much depreciated in value as to inflate the 
values of all necessaries of life as compared with currency. 
Every one holding it has been anxious to dispose of it on 
any terms. Now we witness the reverse. Holders of 
currency hoard it as they did gold in former experiences of 
like nature.” — Message , December 1, i 8 yj. 

The Functions of Money. 

The functions or uses of money are three-fold : 

It is a measure of value. 

It is a medium of exchange. 

It is a means of storing wealth. 

As a measure of value money determines in what propor- 
tion commodities and services shall be interchanged. The 
yardstick measures the quantity of fabrics ; but some 
fabrics are more valuable than others. A bolt of silk, for 
instance, is more valuable than a bolt of muslin — a differ- 
ence which the yardstick, alone, cannot indicate; it merely 
measures quantities, not values. Here the money measure 
becomes necessary. The abstract unit which we call a 
dollar measures the values of both silk and muslin, and 
determines how many yards of muslin should be exchanged 
for a yard of silk. 

Money is a medium of exchange. Smith has a horse and 
buggy which he wishes to exchange for a piano belonging 
to Brown. Brown is willing to part with the piano, but 
does not want a horse and buggy ; he does want, however, 


298 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


a gold watch. Jones has such a watch, but wants to dis- 
pose of it for clothing. Wilson has clothing, but he wants 
coal. For these four parties to find out each other’s 
wants and effect an exchange of actual commodities and 
adjust the difference in value between the articles would 
involve time and labor and make so many difficulties that 
the transactions would be greatly delayed, if not defeated. 
Here money performs its beneficent offices as a medium of 
exchange. Smith sells his horse and buggy for money, 
and with it purchases Brown’s piano. Brown buys the 
watch he wants, and thus money goes from hand to hand, 
effecting innumerable exchanges, not only in the small 
neighborhood, but in great commercial circles, thereby 
bringing the antipodes together and enabling them to sup- 
ply each other’s wants with the least possible loss of time 
and labor. 

Money is, also, a means of storing wealth. Jackson has a 
valuable farm, but is getting too old or infirm in health to 
work it. He might exchange it for a great quantity of 
food, clothing, and other necessaries sufficient to last him 
the remainder of his life ; but these articles could not 
safely be stored so as to preserve them for future years, 
and some representative, that can be stored, must be 
found. Money is that representative. Jackson" sells his 
farm for money, and with the money purchases from time 
to time the necessaries required. 

From a brief study of these three great functions per- 
formed by money may be readily determined what should 
be the characteristics of a perfect currency, one that would 
most effectually and justly serve mankind. 

As a measure of values and as a means of storing wealth 
it is clear that money ought to be stable, that is, it should 
as nearly as possible have the same purchasing power from 
year to year and in all sections of the country; for when 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


2 99 


money fluctuates in purchasing power it is obvious that 
some men will gain and some will lose without any merit 
or fault upon their part, but simply in consequence of the 
fluctuations in the value of money. This is particularly 
true in case of debt, for if a debt be contracted when 
money is cheap, and paid when money is dear, the debtor 
will evidently lose by the change, and if the circumstances 
be reversed the creditor will lose. 

To secure such stability or uniformity of purchasing 
power no measure or method is so effectual as for the 
government to make all its money a full legal tender for 
all debts, public and private. 

As a medium of exchange the volume or quantity of 
money in circulation should be sufficiently large to accom- 
plish the transaction of business without waste or delay. 
In estimating the necessary volume it is proper to take 
into consideration the numbers of population, the magni- 
tude of business transacted, and, since a nimble dollar will 
perform the work of several slow ones, the “ effectiveness ” 
or rapidity with which money circulates ; and, since popula- 
tion and business are, upon the whole, constantly increasing, 
and the rapidity of circulation (until some swifter method 
of locomotion be discovered) remains unaltered, the 
volume of money, clearly, ought to be increased from year 
to year. Few who have not patiently studied the prob- 
lems of finance understand the mighty effects of an 
expansion or contraction of the money volume upon, not 
only the material, but the moral well-being of mankind. 

The very heart of the complex money question, the 
center of all its divergent issues, is the question of 
The Volume of Money. 

The volume or quantity of money in circulation is 
always hard to determine, principally because banks, 
brokers and their allies in official and journalistic positions 


3 00 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


are generally interested in concealing or misstating the 
facts on purpose to mislead the public; so that, not 
infrequently, a period of financial disaster steals upon the 
people unaware and they are compelled to endure all the 
miseries of such an event without being able to detect the 
cause or apply the remedy. In such circumstances the 
masses may dimly perceive that they are being robbed, 
yet, unable to detect the means of their spoliation, they 
attribute it to every cause but the real one, and thus the 
spoliators are enabled to repeat their robbery again and 
again, undetected by any save a few whose complaints are 
regarded as the extravagances of uninformed or fanatic 
minds. 

To fully comprehend how the exploiters of money may 
enrich themselves and impoverish others by merely 
manipulating the currency, it is necessary to understand 
the primary fact that an increasing volume of money brings 
rising prices and business activity , while a dbninishing volume 
of money causes falling prices and business stagnation. Upon 
this proposition the following authorities are cited : 

David Hume, the English historian, in his essay on 
“Mone}',” says : 

“We find that in every kingdom into which money 
begins to flow in greater abundance than formerly, every- 
thing takes a new face ; labor and industry gain new life, 
the merchants become more enterprising, the manufac- 
turers more diligent and skillful, and the farmer follows 
his plow with greater attention and alacrity. The good 
policy of the government consists of keeping it, if possible, 
still increasing as long as there is an undeveloped resource 
or room for a new immigrant, because by that means there 
is kept alive a spirit of industry in the nation which 
increases the stock of labor, in which consists all real 
power and riches. A nation whose money decreases is 
actually weaker and more miserable than other nations 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


301 

which possess less money but are on the increasing 
hand .” — Essays and Treatises , iwl. /, p. 283 . 

Henri Cernuschi, an ex-banker of Paris, and recognized 
as, perhaps, the most eminent of the French writers on 
finance, says : 

4 ‘ The value of money depends upon its quantity. It is 
the same with gold as with greenbacks. If the stock in 
circulation is augmented the purchasing power of every 
greenback is diminished; and so with gold and silver. 
The purchasing power is always in relation to the quantity 
of the money.” — Nomisma, p. 13. 

“That commodities would rise and fall in price in pro- 
portion to the increase or diminution of money I assume 
as a fact that is incontrovertible. That such would be the 
case the most celebrated writers on political economy are 
agreed.” — Ricardo , Political Economy. 

“ If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices 
would double. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices 
would rise one-fourth. The very same effect would be 
produced on prices if we suppose the goods (the uses for 
money) diminished instead of the money increased ; and 
the contrary effect if the goods were increased or the 
money diminished. So that the value of money, all other 
things remaining the same, varies inversely as its quantity ; 
every increase in quantity lowering its value and every 
diminution raising it in a ratio exactly equivalent.” — J. S. 
Mill, Principles of Political Economy. 

Wm. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, in his 
report, February, 1820, says: 

“All intelligent writers on currency agree that when it 
[money] is decreasing in amount poverty and misery must 
prevail.” 

By joint resolution of the United States Congress, August 
15th, 1876, a “United States Monetary Commission” was 
appointed to inquire into the prevailing “hard times.” It 
consisted of Senators John P. Jones, Lewis V. Bogy and 
George S. Boutwell, and Congressmen Randall L. Gibson, 
George Willard and Richard P. Bland ; to whom were 


302 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


added Hon. Wm. S. Groesbeck of Ohio, Prof. Francis 
Bowen of Massachusetts, and Geo. M. Weston of Maine, 
the three latter acting as secretaries of the commission. 
On March 2, 1877, the commission reported. The follow- 
ing extracts are taken from the report : 

4 ‘While the volume of money is decreasing, though very 
slowly, the value of each unit of money is increasing in a 
corresponding ratio, and property and wages are decreas- 
ing. Those who have contracted to pay money find that 
it is constantly becoming more difficult to meet their 
engagements. The margins of securities melt rapidly, and 
their confiscation by the creditor becomes only a question 
of time. All productive enterprises are discouraged and 
stagnate because the cost of producing commodities to-day 
will not be covered by the price obtainable for them to- 
morrow. Exchanges become sluggish, because those who 
have money will not part with it for either property or 
service, for the obvious reason that money alone is increas- 
ing in value while everything else is decreasing in price. 
This results in the withdrawal of money from the channels 
of circulation and its deposit in great hordes where it can 
exert no influence on prices. Money in shrinking volume 
becomes the paramount object of commerce instead of the 
beneficent instrument. Instead of mobilizing industry, it 
poisons and dries up its life currents. It is the fruitful 
source of political and social disturbance. It foments 
strife between labor and other forms of capital, while 
itself, hidden away, gorges on both. It rewards close- 
fisted lenders and filches from and bankrupts enterprising 
producers. An increasing value of money and falling 
prices have been and are more fruitful of human misery 
than war, pestilence or famine; they have wrought more 
injustice than all the bad laws ever enacted .” — Report of 
United States Monetary Commission , vol. /, p. 10 et seq. 

Pointing out how a contraction of the money volume 
increases the debt obligations of the past, R. H. Patterson, 
especially commended by Gladstone as one of the ablest 
of English writers on finance, says : 

“And what is such a dearth of money and rise in the 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. 


303 


measure of value but an injustice to the many to the gain 
of the few — an unfair exaltation of the power of the past 
over the present, an unfair and undesirable aggravation of 
the poverty of the poor and the wealth of the rich — a 
stereotyping of classes according to wealth, until they tend 
to become permanent? We have seen how powerful and 
beneficial was the influx of the precious metals from the 
New World four centuries ago in breaking the social 
bondage which had settled over Europe during the long 
night of the Dark Ages, enabling that generation to escape 
from the heritage of the past and bound forward upon the 
new career then opening to mankind. Such times come 
from the hand of Providence, and with an exceeding rarity 
even in the long career of civilized mankind. But at least 
let us avoid the opposite and never allow successive gen- 
erations to be unfairly — nay, most unjustly, though it may 
not be so meant — handicapped, each in its own race, 
owing to a growing dearth and dearness of money .” — The 
New Golden Age, vol. II, p. 500. 

President Grant said : 

* 1 To increase our exports sufficient money is required to 
keep all the industries of the country employed. Without 
this, national as well as individual bankruptcy must 
ensue.” — Message, December 1, 1873. 

Hon. John Sherman, in a speech in the Senate, January 
27, 1869, said, in opposition to a bill to contract the cur- 
rency by retiring the greenbacks : 

** It is not possible to take this voyage without the sorest 
distress. To every person except a capitalist out of debt, 
or a salaried officer, or annuitant, it is a period of loss, 
danger, lassitude of trade, fall of wages, suspension of 
enterprise, bankruptcy and disaster. ... It means the 
ruin of all dealers whose debts are twice their business 
capital, though one-third less than their actual property. 
It means the fall of all agricultural productions without 
aqy great reduction of taxes. When that day comes every 
man, as the sailor says, will be close-reefed; all enterprise 
will be suspended, every bank will have contracted its 
currency to the lowest limit; and the debtor, compelled to 


3 o 4 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


meet in coin a debt contracted in currency, will find the 
coin hoarded in the treasury, no representative of coin in 
circulation, his property shrunk not only to the extent of 
the depreciation of the currency, but still more by the 
artificial scarcity made by the holders of gold. To attempt 
this task by a surprise upon our people, by arresting them 
in the midst of their lawful business and applying a new 
standard of value to their property without any reduction 
of their debts, or giving them an opportunity to compound 
with their creditors, or to distribute their losses, would be 
an act of folly without an example in evil in modern 
times .” — Congressional Globe , 1869, p. 629. 

In a speech in the United States Senate, March 17, 
1874, General John A. Logan pointed out the cause of the 
panic of 1873 as follows: 

“But, sir, that the panic was not due to the character 
of the currency is proved by the history of the panic 
itself. . . . No, sir, the panic was not attributable to the 
character of the currency, but to a money famine, and to 
nothing else. In the very midst of the panic we saw the 
leading bankers and business men of New York pressing 
and urging the President and the Secretary of the Treasury 
to let loose twenty or twenty-five millions more of the 
same paper for their relief — the very same men who to-day 
denounce it as a disgrace to our government. It was good 
enough for them when they were in trouble. 

“Why is it that representatives forget the interests of 
their own section and stand up here as the advocates of the 
gold-brokers and money-lenders and sharks, the same class 
of men whose tables Christ turned over, and whom he 
lashed out of the temple at Jerusalem? . . . Carry out the 
theory of the contractionists, and what must be the inevit- 
able result? Every enterprise and industry must be 
dwarfed in like proportion. The busy hum of the spindle 
will cease its sound in many a mill which now gives 
employment to hundreds of active hands and supplies the 
comforts of life to many a happy home. The bright blaze 
of many an iron foundry which gives life and cheerfulness 
to the grand scenery along the streams of Pennsylvania 
will cease to gild the night with its rays. And the same 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY . 


305 


industry in my own State, and that of the Senator from 
Missouri, which has been so rapidly increasing of late, will 
be crippled, and hundreds who now find employment 
there will be compelled to seek a home elsewhere for want 
of work. The undeveloped resources of the South and 
West, which we have just begun to appreciate, will rest in 
abeyance until a wiser policy shall bring them into use. 

. . . Why, sir, the people were never freer from debt in 
proportion to the business done than in 1865, at the close 
of the war, when Mr. McCulloch began his system of con- 
traction, and at the very time when eleven million more 
people were to be supplied. Was it to be supposed that 
the activity and energy which the adequate supply of money 
had put in operation, and which was giving prosperity and 
happiness to the country, would suddenly dwarf itself to 
suit financial notions without a struggle? The inevitable 
result was an expedient to meet the consequent want, and 
credit was expanded. At the very moment above all others 
when adequate supply was needed, the opposite course was 
adopted; and right here lies the true cause of the late 
panic, which resulted from a money famine and not from 
an excessive supply. . . . Sir, turn this matter as we will, 
and look at it from any side whatever, and it does present 
the appearance of being a stupendous scheme of the money- 
holders to seize the opportunity of placing under their 
control the vast industries of the nation. Therefore I warn 
Senators against pushing too far the great conflict now 
going on between capital and labor. . . . Capital rests 
upon labor ; but when it attempts to press too heavily on 
that which supports it in a free republic, the slumbering 
volcano, whose mutterings are beginning already to be 
heard, will burst forth with a fury that no legislation will 
quell.” 

From the foregoing, which is but a small fragment of 
the immense literature in harmony with the opinions cited, 
the following conclusions may be digested : 

1. A diminished volume of money always causes a 
proportional diminution in the price of labor and com- 


306 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


modities — or, to express it otherwise, money becomes dear 
and everything else cheap. 

2. This redounds to the advantage of the capitalistic 
class, who are thereby enabled to exact more for their 
money in services and commodities, to purchase all kinds 
of stocks and properties at diminished rates, and to fore- 
close mortgages and collect other forms of debts under 
such conditions as to make “hard times” a harvest for 
the creditor class. 

3. The debtor class is compelled not only to yield more 
services and commodities for the money which it receives 
or has previously received, but suffers the further hardship 
of languishing business and enforced idleness or diminished 
wages; and it should be remembered that every producer 
is a debtor, even though he has no specific obligations 
outstanding; for he will have to aid those who have such 
obligations by receiving less prices and wages and by 
paying relatively increased taxes, salaries, rents and profits 
to those members of the debtor class who are immediately 
above him in the social scale, and who will seek to save 
themselves by shifting the burden of their obligations onto 
those who are below. 



III. 

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN FINANCIAL 
HISTORY. 


By Samuel Leavitt, 

Author of “ Our AToney Wars," “ Dictator Grant" etc. 

'•*1 am astonished at nothing in our business life so much as the 
absence of an earnest, determined endeavor on the part of our 
men of brains to find the cause of these chronic crises and hatd 
times and then set upon the track of some remedy therefor.” — 
Rev. Heber Newton. 

W HAT may well be called the American system of 
money has been gradually evolved, during three 
hundred years, from the bitter experiences of the 
most practical people that ever trod this globe. Franklin, 
Jefferson, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, Gallatin and Benton 
were its prophets. But it first began to take definite shape 
during our civil war under such men as Edward Kellogg, 
Thaddeus Stevens, Henry C. Carey, Stephen Colwell, 
Pliny Freeman, Ben Wade, Oliver P. Morton, Henry 
Wilson and John Thompson; and later, Warwick Martin, 
Peter Cooper, Thomas Ewing, Wendell Phillips, John E. 
Williams, George Opdyke, John G. Drew, John P. Jones, 
William D. Kelley, B. F. Butler and others. 

What first strikes the observer in a bird’s-eye view is 
that the whole modern movement toward a rational money 
system was* started by that much-maligned genius, John 
Law, in France, in 1715. His system was one of the first 
recent revolts against the tyranny of metal money. He 
was the real founder of the Bank of France and the present 
French system. The Encyclopedia Britannica calls him an 
“unequaled financier.” His great thought was plenty of 

307 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


30& 

government paper money, and France has kept that 
thought. Law was finally beaten by politicians and the 
King’s mistresses when he tried to improve his system. 

Turning homeward, we find the first American coin 
money, succeeding the wonderfully useful wampum, came 
very curiously — coin usually does. In 1652 a mint was set 
up in Boston to coin silver into ‘ ‘pine tree” money. The 
silver came mostly from the West Indian trade. Our 
rulers in England then, as now, only busied themselves in 
stealing from us any good money we could get hold of. 
Singularly enough we depended largely then upon another 
class of pirates — the buccaneers of the Spanish main, who 
spent most of their plunder on our shores, where were 
the nearest civilized ports. This was a great blessing — 
“a blessed providence” — to our Puritan ancestors and the 
coin money economists of those days. 

In 1745 we had another blessed influx of silver. Gov- 
ernor Shirley, of Massachusetts, and his pious Puritans, 
went over and captured Louisburg, Cape Breton, from the 
French, with fire and sword, and made a big loot. This 
so tickled Mother Britain that, for once, she sent us a lot 
of silver to “ ransom” Louisburg. This enabled Massa- 
chusetts to steal away the trade of Rhode Island. 

In 1690 the first issue of paper money was made in Mas- 
sachusetts. This was before the establishment of the Bank 
of England. It was for £ 7 , 000 . In 1703 ^“15,000 was 
issued, which was made a legal tender for private debts. 
In 1716 another issue to the amount of ^150,000 was 
authorized. Mark the style of it, as compared with the 
wild-cat projects of the present Congress, and see which is 
the most reasonable and conservative, and then inquire if 
the Farmers’ Alliance plan is so foolish : ‘‘The bills were 
to be distributed among the different counties of the 
province, and to be put into the hands of five trustees in 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY 


309 


each county, to be appointed by the legislature, to be let 
out on real estate security in the county, in specific sums, 
for the space of ten years, at five per cent, per annum.” 
Another act for ^50,000 in bills was passed in 1720, 

‘ ‘which resulted in clearing Massachuetts of debt in 1773.” 

In 1723 Pennsylvania led a number of States in issuing 
paper money. In this year a great crisis occurred in 
England and the Bank was suspended. The coin of the 
American colonies was required, and drawn over, in 
England’s selfish and peremptory way, to prepare the bank 
for resumption. All coin left Pennsylvania, though the 
State possessed laws raising its value. Then the State issued 
treasury notes, and kept them in use until 1773, when 
English jealousy caused Parliament to make all such issues 
void. Some of the money was issued, says Adam Smith, 
on land security of double the value, and redeemed in 
fifteen years. It was made legal tender and remained at 
par with coin for forty years. The necessary notes were 
redeemed, by their payment for taxes, without loss to any 
one. This is the familiar history of Pennsylvania and the 
statement of Franklin. The cutting off of this money was 
the chief cause of the Revolution. The tea-party in Boston 
harbor was only a side-show. 

Continental money was issued by Congress when we had 
no government — no power to tax. Yet if made full legal 
tender, with no mad promise of coin, fifty million dollars 
might have been enough. Gallatin says : “It saved the 
country.” Jefferson: “It expired without a groan.” Cal- 
houn : “ It is the ghost conjured up by all who wish to give 
private banks control of government credit.” It was used 
in place of a war tax, and the people so regarded it. 

French assignats broke the spell of royal tyranny in 
Europe. Such is the power of a live nation to use and 
absorb money that nine billion dollars’ worth of it was 


3 IQ 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


issued before it broke down. Even then the cause of the 
tumble was that it had no suitable foundation. It was 
founded on land taken from the priests, and naturally fell 
when that land was returned to the churches. 

Our Coin for a Century. 

We come now to the coin money of the last half of the 
eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. 
Through ignorance of it, some silver advocates are dismayed 
by the fact that so little silver was coined here before 1878. 
The great point to be shown is that we had no need to 
coin, because so much came from abroad. The way metal 
money flowed here during the wars between England and 
Spain reads like a fairy story. The treasures of Mexico 
and South America passed through here and gave many 
temporary and flitting coin deposits. Then from the open- 
ing of the Napoleonic wars until 1820 the most of Europe, 
including England, was using paper money. So coin came 
and stayed here. In fact, coin stayed back in our Western 
wilds often when it was scarce in Eastern sections and 
large cities. Through all smashes and wild-cat times, 
Western banks paid coin until 1820. Those were good 
times for planters on new soil. The old Virginia planter, 
in his blue swallow-tail coat with brass buttons, and his 
ruffled shirt, always had a pile of doubloons in his desk. 
He did not know that European war and paper money put 
them there. 

The banks, warned by wild-cat experiences, grasped at 
all coin as they do now at gold. One bank sucked all there 
was in North Carolina and owi^ed the State. It was so 
plenty in the twenties, in New England, that they shipped 
it to Europe. 

A point never to be forgotten by silver men, in answer to 
the gold man’s statement about small coinage of silver, is 
that from the foundation of the United States money laws 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY . 


311 

were passed giving legal value to foreign coins. Our 
mistaken ratio of 16 to 1, instead of 15^ to 1, made it 
generally useless for us to coin silver, when we could have 
plenty from abroad that was legal tender. One fact alone 
shows how immensely we were using our own silver and 
foreign silver and gold — viz.: the panic of 1857 was largely 
due to the demonetization of our small silver and those 
foreign coins. In 1853 Congress demonetized all silver 
halves, quarters and dimes in sums of over $5.00. Much 
of the reserves of the banks was in these fractional silver 
coins, which had been full legal tender, and in larger gold 
and silver coins of the United States and other countries. 
The silver dollars of Spain, Mexico, South America and 
the United States were worth a premium over gold, and 
were bought by the Rothschilds and sent out of the coun- 
try, though they did big service while they stayed here. 
But the banks did not hold them as reserves. So the 
demonetization of our small silver deprived the banks of a 
large portion of their reserves and of paying their circula- 
tion therein. 

Up to February, 1857, all foreign gold coins and the 
silver coins of most nations were, in the United States, full 
legal tender with our coins at the values fixed by our laws ; 
and gold being, since 1834, overvalued in the United 
States, immense quantities of these gold coins came here 
and remained. Another reason why we did not coin silver 
dollars is found in this fact : gold was superabundant. 
These gold coins were also held by the banks as reserves 
in large quantities. 

But on February 21, 1857, Congress demonetized all 
foreign coins. This took them out of the banks. They 
went abroad never to return. And this was one chief cause 
of the panic of 1857. The facts above given, properly 
circulated, should forever silence the quibbles of the gold 


312 


PRESENT' DA Y PROBLEMS. 


men about the non-use and non-coinage of silver up to 
1878. From 1861 to 1878 we used but little coin. 

The gold men sneeringly ask if we want to go on a 
50-cent dollar like Mexico. It is true they have worked 
their diabolical will on some of those weak nations, where 
the currency is thrown into horrible confusion thereby, and 
foreign business is made almost impossible by the rise in 
the gold dollar to a $2.00 dollar. They have come near 
Mexicanizing us in this respect, but have failed as yet. 
Their plea for the deposits of workingmen in savings banks 
is like the howl the mortgage people are always raising 
about the poor widows and orphans of the East, to whom 
the Western farmer should willingly pay high interest. 
Wise nations legislate for producers, rather than for 
interest-suckers — male or female. 

United States Banks — Wild-Cat and State Banks. 

Ever since the Revolution there has been war between 
Jefferson’s treasury notes and the sharp fellows who wish 
to collect interest on their debts. In the lush wild-cat 
times bankers did not care whether they made their scoop 
by shoving out bank notes so far that they would hardly 
ever come back, or lending interest-bearing credit to their 
neighbors. Now the telegraph, railroad and redemp- 
tion banks would make hard sledding for State wild- 
cats. 

The United States banks (private) were so mixed with 
the wild-cats for fifty years — 1791 to 1841 — that they need 
describing. The first, in 1791, was got up by Federals 
who hated treasury notes. But fortunately there was much 
honesty then, and it was so managed that its notes were 
like full legal-tender greenbacks. Those were halcyon 
days. The wild-cats were around, but got little game. 
They made their first big inflation in New England. 
The Yankees thought they could swing out to any degree 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


313 

when the Anglo-Spanish and the Napoleon wars made coin 
so plenty here. 

There was a great rush of banks between 1811 and 1816. 
when the second United States Bank came in. It was a 
fraud from the start, violated its charter and was founded 
mostly on personal notes. But it swung its twenty years. 
The great plan of the wild-catters was to get its treasury 
notes, good as gold, and drawing interest, for their red 
dogs. Right here let us affirm that, for short, all State 
bank money may be called wild-cats, red dogs and shin- 
plasters. For such it always proves in panic times. The 
Chicago Tribune says that the Democrats are ‘‘committed 
upon both principle and tradition against a Federal cur- 
rency — committed also to State banking. ” Not so. Jeffer- 
son was strong for Federal money, /. e., treasury notes. 
The Whigs were always as much given to wild-cats as the 
Democrats. Again the Tribune tells of 34,000 who took 
the benefit of the bankruptcy act in 1841-2-3, but says nothing 
of the hundreds of thousands who failed between 1873 and 
1890, under the crush of Republican gold resumption, 
without any such release. Intelligent Democrats could 
show billions of loss from Republican financiering against 
hundreds of millions under Democracy. Give the poor 
devil Democrat his due. He makes a clumsy attempt now 
to cover his rascality in voting against silver bills by all his 
talk of returning to wild-cats. The cheel<y Republicans 
offer no shadow of a real remedy for our financial ills. 

To return to the time of the twenties. The new, hopeful 
country kept having booms in spite of bad money. After 
the close of the war of 1812-15, “blessed peace,” 
said Matthew Carey, “came and brought two thousand 
merchant buyers to Philadelphia.” Fortunes were made. 
It was funny as a circus. The brokers stuffed the United 
States treasury full of shinplasters, not good thirty miles 


3 H 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


from home. Congress said “resume" in 1817. Banks 
said, “Go to the devil.” With twenty-two millions “on 
hand,” Congress had to borrow half a million to keep 
house on. The big bank was given over to favorites, 
bribery and corruption, but ruled the land. There was a 
whirligig between the branches of the big bank and the 
little banks. The latter bought, with their red dogs, 
from the branches, drafts on Eastern cities. The drafts 
bought European goods. Meanwhile the branches socked 
it to the wild-catters up to five and ten per cent, a month, 
till they redeemed their red dogs with the proceeds of 
another crop. 

In 1818 the president of the big bank resigned when it 
was near ruin. A new president, Cheves, saved the bank, 
in the Bank of England fashion, by ruining a lot of small 
banks and merchants. In 1820 came “stay laws” and a 
“relief system.” Men could redeem their lands and 
negroes in two years by paying ten per cent. down. North 
Carolina had an awful time. Robber bankers of Newbern 
became the practical owners of the State and sucked its 
blood. Were ruling still in 1833. 

In 1825 the great Nick Biddle took the presidency of 
the bank, and ran the whole country, till knocked out b}' 
Jackson. Biddle was the biggest boss yet ; moved crops ; 
lent ten millions at a time to the government. Some 
thought he gave the rising sun a boost. When there was 
a run, he only allowed his branches to cash their own 
drafts. In 1832 was high water time for this fine old 
Philadelphia gent. President Jackson, who hated all 
undemocratic high kicking, made him pay the government 
debt from his government deposits. Jackson stopped the 
abnormal boom in wild lands by his “specie circular,” 
ordering only specie to be taken for United States lands. 
Then, to check the torrents of extravagance, he ordered 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


315 


the useless thirty-seven millions that he had foolishly put 
in State banks distributed back to the people of the 
States. The wild-catters paid eighteen millions, and then 
all broke, beginning in New York in May, 1837. That was 
a grand smash. Jackson had a glimpse of the greenback 
remedy in his muddled head. Jefferson and Calhoun always 
had it. 

Parallel with all this was the Mississippi tomfoolery of 
1830 to 1840. That State borrowed thirty millions on the 
old personal note plan from Holland, and fooled it away in 
ten years. Slaves were then the only good assets. These 
were run off to Texas, and “Gone to Texas ” (G. T. T.) 
was a familiar inscription. 

The College Professor and the Facts. 

Prof. Laughlin of Chicago University said in his recent 
speech before the Sunset Club and the Bankers’ Associ- 
ation : 

“It seems to me that one of the greatest misfortunes 
that this country ever suffered was that temporary, and to 
the present time lasting, intoxication connected with the 
issue of United States notes or greenbacks. From the 
foundation of our government, in 1789, to February, 1862, 
the United States government never issued any paper 
money'. ” 

The Chicago Herald of December 10 voiced the same 
falsity thus : 

“ In fact, the government never did anything of the kind 
until 1862, when Congress authorized an issue of legal- 
tender notes.’ 

Are these men simply reckless liars, or are they ignorant 
of the facts? Here are the facts : From 1812 to i860 U. S. 
treasury notes were issued at least twenty times ; that is, 
in every time of emergency, when the bankers’ wild-cat 
money could not possibly keep business going. These 


3 l6 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS . 


notes were receivable for all debts due the government, 
including interest on the public debt and custom-house 
dues ; and that fact made them universally acceptable by 
the people — better than gold. In these respects they were 
better than the greenbacks ; for never until the infernal 
exception was put upon them, in 1862, did the government 
refuse to receive its own treasury notes. 

Here are most of the dates and amounts of those issues 
— all by acts of Congress readily traced: June 3, 1812, 
$5,000,000; February 25, 1813, $10,000,000; March 4, 
1814, $10,000,000; December 26, 1814, $25,000,000; 

February 14, 1815, $25,000,000; October 12, 1837, $10,- 
000,000; March 21, 1838, $10,000,000; May 31, 1840, 
$5,000,000; June 30, 1842, $5,000,000; August 31, 1842, 
$6,000,000; July 22, 1846, $10,000,000; June 28, 1847, 
$23,000,000; December 23, 1857, $20,000,000; December 
1 7, i860, $10,000,000. 

Is that lie nailed? The above treasury notes were 
hampered in various ways. The money-lenders persuaded 
Congress that it would be “ contrary to the laws of the 
Medes and Persians” if the notes drew no interest. So 
they were generally heavily handicapped in that way. 
Sometimes they only drew one mill per annum, sometimes 
nothing. When they drew none the Shylocks at once 
cried that the country was ruined. They liked them well 
enough plus interest, because they were sharp enough to 
get hold of them and pull in the interest, while they 
managed to cram the United States treasury full of their 
wild-cat stuff. 

To thoroughly verify these serious statements, let us 
look at the statutes under which these issues were made 
and the particulars of their issue : 

Act of June j, 1812 {Statutes 2 , p. 766 ). — This law author- 
ized the issue of $5,000,000 treasury notes, to run one 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


317 


year, bearing five and two-fifths per cent, interest. They 
were made receivable for all debts due the government, 
and were to be paid to such public creditors and other 
persons as were willing to receive them. They might also 
be used to procure loans, or might be placed to the credit 
of the treasury in banks at par and accrued interest. 

Act of February 25, 1813 { Statutes 2 , p. 801 ). — This law 
authorized the issue of $10,000,000 treasury notes to 
mature in one year, bearing five and two-fifths per cent, 
interest per annum. Terms same as act of June 3, 1812. 

Act of March 4, 1814 ( Statutes 3, p. 100 ). — Authorized 
an issue of $10,000,000 on same terms as above. No 
charge to the government was to be made by the banks 
which credited the notes. 

Act of December 26, 1814 {Statutes 3, p. 161 ). — Authorized 
the issue of $25,000,000 treasury notes in place of a loan 
of $25,000,000 previously authorized. Ten millions of 
these notes were to be applied to the payment of 
$10,000,000 previously borrowed. Otherwise they were 
like the above. 

Act of February 14 , 1813 {Statutes 3, p . 213). — This law 
authorized the issue of $25,000,000 treasury notes in 
addition to other issues. Up to this time the Secretaries 
of the Treasury, Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Crawford, had com- 
plained that the treasury notes so far issued were made too 
large for common circulation, though their standing among 
the people was good and the people were desirous of 
having them. They said treasury notes had taken the 
place of coin and equalized the exchange throughout the 
country. To meet the wishes of these secretaries and of 
Jefferson and Madison, as well as the people, these 
$25,000,000 treasury notes for circulation were authorized 
and issued. The most of them were required to be less 
than $100 in denomination, and to be payable to bearer, 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


3l8 

while those of $100 and over were to be made payable to 
order and to pay by indorsement, and were to bear five 
and two-fifths per cent, interest. The smaller ones were 
to bear no interest. They were also, for the first time, 
made receivable for six per cent, bonds. They were made 
to circulate as money, and to have the characteristics of 
coin, but they were not redeemable therein. They were 
legal tender to the United States. These notes, after 
being paid into the treasury, were to be reissued. 

When these $25,000,000 treasury notes of small denomi- 
nations were made to circulate as money, and to bear no 
interest, the indignation of all the banks in the country 
was aroused. They saw that if those notes went out 
among the people, and became the money of the country, 
there would be an end to the circulation of bank notes. 
Such was the truth. There -was, therefore, a general 
combination in New England, New York, Delaware and 
Pennsylvania to kill them off. The old Bank of the 
United States, chartered in 1791, the charter of which 
expired and which was not renewed in 1811, was then, as 
the law allowed, closing up its affairs. The debts of the 
people to this bank were very large. The bank was press- 
ing for payment. The people presented these treasury 
notes, which did not bear interest, in payment. The bank, 
to destroy the credit of the notes, and to force the recharter 
of a national bank, refused to receive the notes of the gov- 
ernment in payment to the bank. As the bank would not 
receive the notes from the merchants, the merchants were 
reluctantly compelled to refuse to receive them for debts 
due and for goods sold. The New England banks, and 
those of Delaware, were also deeply involved in this con- 
spiracy to destroy the credit of these treasury notes, as all 
such are now. The embargo and non-intercourse laws of 
Jefferson and Madison had destroyed the carrying trade of 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


319 

New England, and had caused a suspension of the New 
England banks in 1809 and 1810. The people of New 
England were, therefore, greatly opposed to the war with 
England. They did all they could to cripple the govern- 
ment in carrying it on. They refused all loans, even of 
bank notes, and were very hostile to all treasury notes, 
especially to those intended to take the place of bank 
notes, as were those of 1815. 

By a general combination between State banks, the old 
national bank bondholders and bullion brokers, these notes 
of the United States were forced to a discount for a short 
time. One of the strongest arguments in favor of having 
all treasury notes made full legal tender is here presented. 
Had they been legal tender to the people, as well as to 
the government, all the efforts of the banks and brokers to 
reject them and reduce their value would have been fruit- 
less. If the legal tender character were removed from the 
greenbacks the national banks would at once discredit 
them to-day. 

Immediately after these efforts of the banks to discredit 
treasury notes, an application was made to Congress for a 
charter for another United States bank, which proposed to 
take from the government, as part of its capital, $15,000,- 
000 of these same treasury notes, to withdraw them from 
competition with bank notes. (Just as the rascally con- 
spirators at Washington are now trying to do with three 
hundred and forty-six million greenbacks.) 

Mr. Madison vetoed the bill, principally on account of 
this provision. But $28,000,000 of bonds were substituted 
for treasury notes, as capital of the bank ; and by a 
combination of the Federal party and a few Democrats it 
was chartered. The charter provided that no other such 
bank should be chartered by Congress for twenty years. 
This implied, also, that all treasury notes intended to cir- 


320 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


culate as money should be withdrawn, and that this bank 
should furnish all the national paper circulation for twenty 
years. 

For this privilege the bank paid $1,500,000. The con- 
tract on the part of the government was disgraceful, but, 
having been made, it had to be carried out ; and it was 
carried out, as the following acts of Congress show : 

The Act of March 3 , 1817 ( Statutes 3 , p. 377). — The 
second Bank of the United States had just gone into 
operation. Congress was compelled to comply with its 
part of the contract. It, therefore, passed this law, which 
repealed all laws authorizing the reissue of the “treasury 
notes of 1815.” But the people had these government 
notes, and they preferred them to bank notes or coin. They 
knew that the repeal of the law authorizing their reissue 
could not affect the value of those then in their hands, 
for a valuable consideration paid the government. They, 
therefore, held on to the notes (as our people should now, 
in spite of Sherman, Gage & Co.) Instead of paying 
them into the treasury, where the law required them to be 
destroyed, the people held on to them, and used them in 
business, greatly to the annoyance of the bank and of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, then a bank man (Mr. Dallas). 
This officer ordered the collector of revenue to refuse to 
receive these notes for duties on imports, suppposing that 
by this means he could injure their credit and force their 
presentation at the treasury for payment in coin or national 
bank notes, that they might be canceled. This gave rise 
to a suit in Boston. A firm presented treasury notes in 
payment of duties on imports, for which the law creating 
them provided that they should be received. The govern- 
ment refused to receive them, and brought suit for the 
duties. The defendants pleaded a tender of treasury notes. 
The government answered that they were not legal tender. 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


321 


Judge Story, in 1819, heard the case, and decided for the 
defendants. The decision is that ‘‘Treasury notes are 
legal tender for everything for which the government 
makes them receivable.” This decision is in 2 Mason, 
pages 1 to 18. This decision, though against the govern- 
ment, was never appealed to the Supreme Court. It, 
therefore, stood as the law of the land. 

The Act of May 3, 1822 {Statutes j, p. 675 ). — Treasury 
notes still remained out among the people, to the annoy- 
ance of the bank and the Secretary. The decision of 
Judge Story raised instead of depreciating them in the 
estimation of the people, and increased the anxiety of the 
bank and the Secretary respecting them. The notes did 
not come to the treasury for destruction. (Just so the 
people acted when John Sherman tried to make them take 
5-20 bonds and .give up the greenbacks.) They remained 
among the people until May 3, 1822, when Congress again 
came to the rescue of the bank and passed the law of that 
date, which provided that these treasury notes should not 
be received by any collector of revenue in the United 
States, and that they should be received and paid at the 
treasury only. All that came into the treasury were to be 
destroyed. The people wished to retain these notes; but 
the bank forced Congress to act against them; and Con- 
gress, by destroying their receivability, compelled their 
surrender by the people. We hear no more of treasury 
notes thereafter until 1837, when, as usual, the necessities 
of the government again called them into being. 

The Act • of October 12 , 1837 {Statutes 3, p. 201). — The 
banks had all suspended, with nearly $40,000,000 govern 
ment bonds. Not one year before the law had made these 
banks public depositories, with their promise that they 
would always pay coin for all liabilities. The government 
had, in 1835, paid off the last dollar of the national debt. 


322 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


The surplus then in the treasury was nearly $40,000,000. 
This was in the banks. The government had no money to 
pay ordinary expenses, unless the treasury used suspended 
bank notes. This Mr. Van Buren, the President, refused 
to do. He called Congress together to meet the emer- 
gency. Its remedy for the emergency was treasury notes 
(as it should now be), which Jefferson says are the only 
reliance of a nation. This act of October 12, 1837, pro- 
vided for the issue of $10,000,000 treasury notes, in denomi- 
nations not less than $50, running one year. The law left 
the interest which they were to bear discretional with the 
President and the Secretary of the Treasury ; but in no 
case was it to exceed six per cent. Congress appeared too 
timid to make these notes money bearing no interest. The 
Secretary, knowing that the people needed them as money, 
complied with the law by making many of them bear one 
mill interest per annum. As such they circulated freely as 
money, and the people were delighted to get and use them. 
They answered all the purposes of coin, and equalized the 
exchanges throughout the country. The banks did not, at 
that time, possess sufficient power to injure them. Men 
now living remember them and their usefulness, although, 
imitating the foolishness of the Bank of England, they were 
never paid out of the treasury but once. 

The Act of May 21 , 1838 {Statutes 5, p. 228 ). — This act 
authorized the reissue of the $10,000,000 treasury notes 
issued under the act of 1837, which had been canceled. 
They should have been used till worn out, and then 
replaced ad infinitum. It has taken time and a great war 
to open the eyes of the people and Congress to see what 
Jefferson saw in 1813. And now, again, many are forgetting 
the facts. 

The Act of May 31 , 1840 {Statutes 3, p. 37 o ').— -This law 
renews the act of 1837, relating to the issue of treasury 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


323 


notes, and makes the following modifications : 1. That they 
were to be issued in place of those redeemed ; not to 
exceed in this issue $5,000,000. 2. They were to be 

redeemed in less than a year, if the treasury was in a con- 
dition to redeem them. 3. When ready to redeem them, 
the Secretary of the Treasury was to give notice. 4. After 
due notice, these notes should cease to bear interest, if 
they remained out. This act was to continue only one 
year. It is evident that Congress supposed the necessity 
for issuing treasury notes would soon cease. But it was 
mistaken. Treasury notes continued to be issued up to 
1848. 

The Act of July 4, 1840 ( Statutes 5, p. 385 ). — This was 
the first independent treasury act of the days of Van 
Buren. It had good features, but was badly bungled. The 
money of the government was to be kept by the govern- 
ment (instead of the banks), in the mints, custom-houses, 
post-offices and treasury building. The fool part of it was 
that after January 3, 1843, no payment should be made to 
the government in anything but gold and silver coin. The 
banks were suspended. The government was being sus- 
tained by treasury notes. But still this law provided that 
after January 3, 1843, treasury notes should be excluded 
from the treasury as well as bank notes. An appeal was 
made to the people, in that year’s election, upon this law, 
and Van Buren and his coin payments were knocked out by 
Harrison with wiser plans. 

The Act of July 21 , 1841 {Statutes 3, p. 438 ). — This was 
among the first Whig acts, and they in turn made fools of 
themselves. They favored a national bank, but opposed 
treasury notes. The law provided for the issue of $12,- 
000,000 six per cent, bonds. The principal purpose was to 
redeem the good treasury notes of the Democrats. A 
Pittsburg man was sent to England to sell the bonds. 


3 2 4 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


Though the United States had paid its national debt in 
1835, bonds were no go. The Whigs, having failed to 
found a bank and sell these bonds, were compelled to rely 
upon the much-despised treasury notes of the Democrats. 

The Act of April 15, 1842 {Statutes 3 , p. 473), was a final 
effort to shove the bonds. They were increased to $17,- 
000,000, the time extended indefinitely up to twenty years. 
They could be sold at less than par. The rich, strong 
young nation could not do it, though taxes and duties were 
pledged for payment. The war was going on between the 
Whig Congress and sensible President Tyler. The latter 
advocated the issuing of all the paper money as well as 
metallic money by the government ; but Congress wished 
the money issued by a national bank. The President 
vetoed the bank bill. Congress, by way of heading him 
off, passed the act to make treasury notes bear six per cent, 
interest, to hinder their being used as money. 

The Act of June 30, 1842 {Statutes 5, p. 766). — This pro- 
vided for $5,000,000 treasury notes to run one year. Interest 
five per cent. Otherwise like most of the others, as to 
legal tender, payment to public creditors and placing them 
in banks. 

The Act of August 31 , 1842 {Statutes 3, p. 381), shows a 
lingering hope of selling the bonds. If not successful, the 
government was to issue $6,000,000 more of treasury notes 
(trotting out the despised pack-mule again), which might 
even be reissued. What a let-up! Br’erFox Shylock, he 
lie low! 

The Act of March j, 1843 {Statutes 3, p. 614 ), authorizes 
the issue of new treasury notes to supply the place of those 
redeemed. 

The Act of July 22 , 1846 {Statutes 3 , p. 39). — The Dem- 
crats resumed power in 1845. This act authorizes $10,- 
000,000 treasury notes in place of those destroyed. 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


325 


The Act of August 6, 1846 ( Statutes 9, p. 59), finally 
established the independent treasury on a sensible basis. 
It made all treasury notes and gold and silver coins equal 
in payment of all debts to the government. This held till 
1861, and many of the provisions are still law, but badly 
enforced, as when our recent Presidents deposited many 
millions in banks. 

The Act of January 28 , 184/ (, Statutes 9, p. 118 ), author- 
ized $23,000,000 (more than $500,000,000 now) to fight the 
Mexican war. No interest was fixed. They mostly drew 
one mill, and the people gladly used them as money. 

The Act of December 23, 1837 ( Statutes 11, p. 237), pro- 
vided for $20,000,000 treasury notes to take the place of 
coin, the banks having suspended with the coin in their 
vaults. (Heaven, or something, generally saves the 
banks.) These were, like most of the previous issues, 
with nominal interest. The plain people took them gladly. 

The Act of December 17 , i860 ( Statutes 11, p. 121), pro- 
vides for $10,000,000 treasury notes, running one year, at 
six per cent. The interest was to run and the notes remain 
out until sixty days after notice of readiness to redeem. 
Otherwise they had the old provisions. 

The Act of February 8, 1861, authorized the issue of 
treasury notes, or a loan of $25,000,000 to take up treasury 
notes. 

The Act of March 2 , 1861 ( Statutes 12 , p. 178 ), provides 
for a loan of $10,000,000 to take up treasury notes and for 
government expenses. Same old story. If bonds not 
sold, then more notes. 

This brings us to the act of July 17, 1861, when the 
gigantic $250,000,000 of loans and notes came up. The 
further history is well known. That just given will sur- 
prise those who thought treasury notes began with the 
rebellion. 


326 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


Safety Fund — Suffolk and Redemption Banks. 

As many of the foolish propositions now put forth for 
1 ‘reforming the currency” are only feeble imitations of the 
Safety Fund, Suffolk System and Redemption Bank Sys- 
tem that arose before the Rebellion, a brief account of 
them will be given here. In the thirties and forties there 
were as many so-called systems as there were States. The 
Suffolk System of Massachusetts, among those first started, 
alone deserved the name of system. In 1829 that State 
decreed that no bank should operate unless fifty per cent, 
of its capital was paid in coin. Notes must not exceed 
twenty-five per cent, of the capital. Liabilities, except 
deposits, must not exceed twice the capital. Such pro- 
visions, however, amounted to little, because, much of the 
loans being simple credits, there was small inducement in 
the strong banks to overissue notes. As no provision was 
made for reserves, the coin to set a bank in motion could 
be bought and sold again right after the organization. The 
Redemption system, afterward adopted, was much better, 
but, as will be shown, only a harm in panic times. 

The New York banks were placed mostly in New York 
City and the Hudson River towns. In 1829 the Safety 
Fund System arose there. It allowed the banks under it 
to issue notes to twice the amount of their paid-up capital, 
and loans to twice and a half the amount. Every bank 
under it had to pay the State Treasurer, annually, one- 
half of one per cent, upon its share capital — these pay- 
ments to continue till each bank had a sum equal to three 
per cent, of its share capital. The amounts so paid were 
to be held as a common fund for the discharge of notes or 
other liabilities of any bank of the system. 

In 1841 and 1842 eleven of the Safety Fund banks failed, 
making a loss to the creditors of $2,588,933. The fund was 
then $86,274. The whole amount of the fund to September 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY . 


32 7 


30, 1848, was only $1,876,063. The balance of the loss 
was provided by the State, which was to be reimbursed by 
further additions to the fund. That was very nice for the 
banks. In 1842 the act was so amended that the fund 
became chargeable only with the losses to the public on 
the note circulation, just as it is the case with the national 
banks now. 

In 1838 New York founded the “Free Banking System,” 
by which banks could be formed without application to the 
legislature. These associations were required to deposit 
with the State Comptroller United States or State stocks 
equal to a five per cent, stock, or bonds and mortgages on 
improved real estate worth twice the sum secured, and 
equal in amount to their note circulation. The Comptroller 
issued the notes to them. Up to 1843 twenty-nine of these 
banks failed — circulation, $1,233,374; nominal value of 
securities, $i,555>33 8 - These produced $ 953 > 37 I » or 74 
per cent, of the circulation secured. The law was then 
amended to exclude all but United States stocks, and those 
of the State, which must be equal to six per cent. 

A wiser provision had been adopted in 1840, requiring all 
the State banks to redeem their notes, either in New York 
City, Albany or Troy, at a discount of one-half of one per 
cent. In 1851 this discount was reduced to one-quarter of 
one per cent. After 1851 two New York banks started the 
Redemption System. The notes of such of the country 
banks as kept deposits with them were returned, the 
redeeming banks dividing the discounts between them- 
selves and the issuers. This system was useful, as it 
forced a constant redemption ; but see how it worked in 

1857. 

After 1838 no more Safety Fund banks were chartered, 
and the system gradually lapsed. But a curious story 
could be told of how it ran through the West. That 


328 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


region was deluged with “safety” money — all but the 
safety. In 1846 the new Constitution of New York took 
from the legislature all power to pass any act granting any 
special charter for banking purposes ; such organizations 
to be under general laws. After 1850 bank stockholders 
were to be liable to the amount of their shares for all the 
debts, and holders of notes to be preferred creditors. 

Now, for the redemption banks in 1857. These banks, 
useful in their way in ordinary times, did harm in that 
panic. A few years before a new source of profit was 
suggested to some New York banks. If the redemption 
that was distributed among the money-brokers could be 
monopolized by one or two institutions it would yield a 
rich revenue ; and it could easily be attracted by reducing 
the rates of redemption so low as to exclude individual 
competition. The system was based somewhat upon the 
Suffolk system. Coupled with the payment of interest 
on country deposits, it had grown into astonishing activity 
before 1857. It worked admirably as a piece of machinery, 
with the popular commendation that it restricted the bank 
currency by enforcing prompt redemption, and saved the 
merchants a heavy brokerage. It was a great convenience 
in the first days of the panic, when private capital was 
withdrawn from the purchase of currency, and when the 
merchants, but for the redeeming banks, would have been 
overburdened with unavailable notes. 

But the redemption system, like everything else that 
was susceptible of abuse, was turned aside from its legiti- 
mate purpose and made to answer a mischievous end. 
The low rate at which the bills were taken in New York 
accelerated their return in bulky as a basis of exchange, or 
for credit in account. Thus their distinctive character as 
circulation was in a great measure destroyed. The cheap 
redemption, so desirable in a common state of the market. 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY . 


329 


became virtually a premium on the currency of New York. 
The tendency, then, was to take it out of a healthful 
circulation and throw it back to its source, whereby it 
profited nobody so much as the stockholders of the express 
companies. The country banks might keep their own bills 
in a perpetual circulation, by exchanging them with each 
other, and thus creating a trade in them. The same 
packages were not unfrequently kept unopened in the 
circuit, and reissued in bulk, as often as they were needed 
to supply balances. 

In a panicky time such redeeming banks must either put 
more capital into the service or reject the bills. In 1857, 
in spite of the best management, the currency circuit was 
kept up ; the bills of one bank were paid for the bills of 
all the others. 

Another evil arose from these banks. The credit given 
to an unsecured currency by their indorsement gave it a 
wide circulation, to the displacement of bills that were 
based upon State and United States stocks. It was now 
seen that this credit had no other basis than a current 
deposit by the issuing bank, which deposit was in very 
small proportion to its outstanding bills; and that the 
redeeming bank was prompt to the hour in repudiating 
those bills if the deposit was not maintained. This was a 
fallacious credit, entirely independent of the separate 
ability of the issuing banks. The general result was that 
bills were likely to fail in transit , and they would not then 
be admitted as a deposit, which would involve the rejec- 
tion of others. And so the row of bricks began to tumble 
in both directions. 

There was no incident of that panic that spread its 
terrors abroad with such sure and rapid steps as the rejec- 
tion, by the redemption banks, of bills which they had 
been accustomed to receive on deposit. If it had been 


330 


PRESENT DA V PROBLEMS. 


possible to remove all other causes of excitement, that 
alone would probably have involved the suspension of 
specie payments. It filled all the shops of the country 
with alarm. It created mobs in the savings banks, and 
pushed forward the panic, by exciting the fears of the 
multitude. 

The Example of France. 

Professor Laughlin has the gall, as few of his confreres 
have, to appeal to “the example of France,” after the 
Prussian war of 1871, in not “interfering with her media 
of exchange.” It is hard to tell whether his statement is 
based upon impudence or ignorance. She interfered with 
all the ideas of propriety entertained by his clique in a 
way that has been secretly their despair ever since. Yet 
hear his glorification of a scheme that cuts all the ground 
from under him. He says : 

“France borrowed largely, collected large amounts of 
capital by the creation of her national debt, and, on the 
other hand, retained her circulating medium in so perfect 
a condition that the moment the war was over she slipped 
along smoothly upon the wheels of industrial success and 
prosperity, without any derangement of her business. 
And, during that time, she carried through one of the 
most magnificent schemes of exchange, in the form of the 
payment of indemnity, that has ever taken place in history. 
She actually paid that foreign indemnity of the war to 
Germany practically without deranging the rate of ex- 
change in France.” 

He don’t tell how. Don’t tell that she flooded all the 
avenues of trade with her paper money, and thus made her 
goods so plenty and cheap that Germany bought them 
instead of her own, and was then in turn nearly bank- 
rupted; so that France paid three quarters of the 
“milliard” in French goods! 

But hear the true story from Wendell Phillips, an 
all-round, up-to-date reformer, whose motto was, “Act in 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


331 


the living present.” When the monopolizers of black men 
were beaten he turned to face the monopolizers of all men 
and women. Here is his eloquent picture : 

“ France has just paid Germany one billion dollars. 
Her chief cities have been sacked and plundered. 
Humiliated by defeat, torn by civil dissensions, she 
laughs, while all the rest of Christendom wade through 
the mire of bankruptcy. Her ships are full busy, and 
what little other nations do is in carrying to and fro her 
manufactures. Her homes are happy, her streets crowded 
with passing trains loaded with goods; all her mills hurry- 
ing night and day to get even with her demand upon them. 
Labor walks rejoicing and capital sleeps easy, fat with its 
gains. What magician has done this? Paper money. 
Like the rest of the nations, she ran to its protection 
during the stress and strain of her German war. Unlike 
and wiser than the rest of us, she has not hurried back to 
coin. Wiser than we, she received the paper she offered 
to others. This honesty has its reward. Her paper is, 
to-day, more valuable than gold.” 

Among the great results of this policy were an abund- 
ance of gold and silver coming from abroad, until 
$1,200,000,000 was found to be in the country. 

Lest some may doubt the statement about the Germans 
only getting a little gold for that indemnity, an extract is 
here given from “Our Money Wars,” p. 152. 

“Ivan C. Michels says: ‘The indemnity from France 
to Germany, after the war of 1870-71, including interest at 
five per cent, per annum, amounted to $1,060,209,015. 
After crediting France with the value of certain railroads 
in Alsace and Lorraine, the amount of indemity due Ger- 
many was $998,172,069, or 4,990,860,349 francs, which was 
paid by the French government through the Bank of 
France. At my request the Bank of France furnished to 
me several years ago the following statement as to the 


mode of having paid said indemnity : 

Francs. 

In bank notes of the Bank of France 125,000,000 

In French gold coins ' 273,003,050 


332 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


In French silver coins..... 239,291,875 

In German bank notes 105,039,045 

Bills of exchange drawn in thalers 2,485,513,729 

Bills drawn on Frankfurt in florins ... 235,128,152 

Bills drawn on Hamburg in marksbancs. . . . 265,216,990 

Bills drawn on Berlin in reichsmarks 79*072,309 

Bills drawn on Amsterdam in florins 250,540,821 

Bills drawn on Antwerp and Brusselsin francs 295,704,546 
Bills drawn on London in pounds sterling.. 637,349,832 


Total francs 4,990,860,349 


“ ‘The patriotic people of France raised the vast sum 
by a loan in less than six months from the time the gov- 
ernment appealed to them. Germany expected to receive 
for years to come five per cent, per annum on the indemnity 
bonds; but the Bank of France, through the French 
bankers, drew on Germany, England, Scotland and Bel- 
gium, and in four months’ time the whole indemnity was 
paid. Never in the history of the world has this financial 
transaction been equaled, and I doubt that any other 
banking institution could have succeeded so well as the 
Bank of France. Germany expected the payment in gold 
coin or bullion, having previously and purposely de- 
monetized silver. But the fact remains that actually in 
gold only 273,003,050 francs, equal to $54,600,610, was 
paid by the Bank of France, and that sum only left 
France, was remelted in Germany and coined into reichs- 
marks. England, with her gold standard, had to part with 
her gold to the amount of 637,348,832 francs, equal to 
$127,469,964. Bills of exchange on the German bankers 
throughout the German empire, especially on Hamburg, 
Berlin and Frankfurt, came to 3,064,901,180 francs, equal 
to $612,986,236, nigh on two-thirds of the whole amount 
of the indemnity. This magnificent stroke of finance on 
the part of the Bank of France and the French bankers 
came near ruining the leading German bankers; and 
forty-one banking houses throughout the German empire 
had to suspend temporarily, not being able to honor the 
drafts made upon them. The extravagance of the German 
people during the war of 1870-71 brought them into debt 
to France for luxuries, wines, etc., to an enormous extent ; 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY 


333 


and when the Bank of France purchased bills of exchange 
from the French bankers, who drew on their German cor- 
respondents, a panic ensued, and the Germans suffered 
more than is generally supposed.’ ” 

The above from Michels shows that he saw but dimly 
what Phillips saw so plainly, that government paper 
money, nourishing all industries, gave France that victory. 
Michels catches a glimpse of the truth when he speaks of 
luxuries, wines, etc. 

To get a clear view of the French financial genius we 
have to go back to 1848, when Louis Philippe abdicated 
and the republic was founded amid great confusion. The 
French have an instinct for finance far superior to anything 
yet shown — by our rulers at least — in England and America. 
“ Paris,” says Victor Hugo, “is the city of the initiative.” 
It is not afraid to start things. It is not, like Washington 
and New York, always asking what London would do or 
think. Taking Louis Blanc’s advice in 1848, it started 
national work-shops to insure the employment of surplus 
labor. Those did good for a time, but they were soon 
perverted and destroyed by a treacherous Jew who got 
hold of them. 

Another new departure was more successful. “Besides 
its regular financial operations,” says the London Times of 
February 16, 1849, “the Bank of France made vast 
advances to the city of Paris, to Marseilles, to the Depart- 
ment of the Seine, and to the hospitals, amounting in all 
to 260,000,000 francs. But even this was not all. To 
enable the manufacturing interests to weather the storm, 
at a moment when all sales were interrupted, a decree of 
the National Assembly had directed warehouses to be 
opened for the reception of all kinds of goods, and pro- 
vided that the registered invoices of these goods so depos- 
ited should be made negotiable by indorsement. The 
Bank of France discounted these receipts. In Havre 


334 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


alone 18,000,000 francs was thus advanced upon colonial 
products, and in Paris 14,000,000 on merchandise. In all 
60,000,000 francs was thus made available for all the pur 
poses of trade. Thus the great institution had placed 
itself, as it were, in direct contact with every interest of 
the community, from the Minister of the Treasury down 
to the trader in a distant part. Like a huge hydraulic 
machine, it employed its colossal powers to pump a fresh 
stream into the exhausted arteries of trade , to sustain credit 
and preserve the circulation from complete collapse.” 

How like “a grimacing dance of apes” our American 
way of handling financial crises looks, in comparison with 
the above. 

The Bank of England. 

Prof. Laughlin showed the usual gold-bug worship of 
British finance in this : 

“ In the Bank of England the first moment of stringency 
the rate of discount is raised. That has the effect of pre- 
venting all unnecessary loans. The borrower who has 
good collateral will get the money if he is willing to pay 
an increased rate. Our system is such that we can loan 
until we come to the legal limit ; and is deficient in that 
respect, as we cannot loan at a greater discount because of 
the iniquitous action of the usury laws. You can help a 
customer by increasing the rate. Just at the moment of 
the greatest stringency our American system is deficient.” 

Ordinary decorous language would fail to characterize 
that infamous statement. The fact is that the British 
system is utterly brutal. Our “iniquitous usury laws” 
prevent a man from giving everything he has to the banks 
in hard times. The British system is that of Jay Gould in 
his gold corner of 1869. He settled with his debtors by 
“taking all they had.” He was merciful, and forgave 
them the balance ; which is the usual stock exchange 
style. 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY . 


335 


In coin-paying eras corrupt governments and Shylocks 
have debased coins to make them go further. In these 
credit-mongering times they try to bring their coin basis 
down to one metal, gold, and clamor for extreme fineness 
of that, in order to make their inverted pyramid of credit 
go further and sell dearer. The policy of Great Britain, 
for instance, has been to make gold, its standard, so dear 
and inaccessible to the foreigners and debtor class that 
they would find the other commodities in the market 
cheaper than the gold in the market, so that settlements in 
other commodities would be preferable. The retention of 
gold in the Bank of England, by raising discounts in 
panicky times, though murderous (“kindness,” says Mr. 
Laughlin) to individual active business men, is a necessary 
factor in this piratical scheme, and the fulcrum upon 
which England derricks into her treasure vaults the 
plunder of the whole world. Business is made a lottery, 
turning out dazzling prizes that keep merchants from 
rebellion. Long-headed American Shylocks hope to see 
the United States as much more successful in plundering 
the globe, in this way, as our country is larger than 
England . 

Finally, as to Laughlin, with what bitter scorn this state- 
ment from the “closet scholar” will be greeted by the 
thousands of manufacturers who, during panics, have had 
to shut their factories for lack of cash “to pay the 
hands” — though they had all but gilt-edge collateral : 

“The monetary function has to do solely with exchanges 
of goods ; it hasn’t anything to do with their production.” 

The Washington “ Currency Reformers.” 

In finishing this bird’s-eye view of the financial history 
of this country, a brief review of the current financial plans 
cannot well be avoided. It may be said of them, in a 
general way, that no other set of robbers ever before 


336 


present da y problems. 


attempted to secure a law guaranteeing them unrestricted 
right to plunder with unlimited government protection. 
The out and out black-flag pirates, as represented by 
Walker of Massachusetts, have a plan as simple and 
explicit as a patent medicine. It runs thus: “ Retire the 
greenbacks, kill silver once for all, and let the bankers 
manage the currency.” This obsolete idea, that banks 
should issue money, is showing all the vim of a death 
struggle. But a thousand columns of speeches in the 
Congressional Globe on the safety of the national bank system 
are answered by this solitary fact : In the year 1893, three 
hundred and sixty banks west of the Alleghanies, owing 
$125,000,000, went to smash, and about a dozen bankers 
are now in prison or exile, while many more escaped as by 
fire. 

The Baltimore Plan, which a while ago had the sanc- 
tion of the Comptroller, Secretary of the Treasury and the 
President, is, in a word, a scheme for issuing circulating 
notes by both national and State banks, otherwise than 
upon the pledge of government bonds as now. The banks 
are to issue notes upon their own assets, supplemented by 
a deposit of a certain amount of greenbacks, as a safety 
and redemption fund. The theory of this plan is that 
when any special demand for currency arises the banks 
will make a special issue of notes to supply it ; and that as 
soon as this demand ceases the banks will retire the notes 
it has called out. Thus the quantity of currency available 
will, it is assumed, never be either deficient or excessive ; 
and there will never be at any point either a monetary 
stringency or a monetary plethora. Were the function of 
currency exclusively that of facilitating exchanges, such a 
system (like that of 3-65 interconvertible bonds) might be 
useful. But currency serves the additional purpose of 
measuring the price of commodities ; and since its relation 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


337 


to those commodities is determined by its volume, any 
change of its volume changes its value also, and conse- 
quently impairs its stability as a measure of prices. 

Again, as to the State bank feature of the Baltimore 
plan, the idea prevails extensively in the agricultural 
districts of the West and South that the chief business of 
a bank is to lend money to borrowers. That is why they 
clamor for the removal of the ten per cent, tax on State 
banks. An abundance of greenbacks and silver would do 
away with most of the need of borrowing from banks. 
That’s what’s the matter with the banks. 

No further mention is needed here of the schemes of 
Carlisle, Springer, Vest and others. They seem all dead 
at this writing, and they certainly should be damned. 
Even the New York Tribune , a monopolists’ own, says of 
one of the safety -fund schemes: 

“The bankers are to have free issue ; and when one fails 
the government is to collect from the other banks and 
redeem its currency. But in time of panic the government 
would not and could not do that.” 

On the other hand, the New York Sun , edited by a man 
who was a radical socialist in his youth, and now a bitter 
hardened, cruel cynic, although lately a Greenback paper, 
is as rabid as the New York Evening Post in advocacy of 
gold and gold only. It says of the latest safety-fund 
humbug : 

“The new bill, like the old one, authorizes an inflation 
of our paper currency, by at least $550,000,000, without 
providing for its redemption in gold, and without any 
effectual provision for diminishing the volume of outstand- 
ing legal tender. Our New York financial magnates, who 
have put up, this year, $116,000,000 in gold, to save the 
treasury from suspending gold payments , ought to bestir them- 
selves in opposition to this latest administration folly, if 
they would not see all their efforts go for naught and the 


33 § 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


catastrophe which they have labored to avert rendered 
inevitable.” [!!] 

In Chicago we have Lyman Gage’s plan. Mr. Gage is 
a man of intellect who resembles some of those orthodox 
clergymen who, by a long course of theological dissipa- 
tion, i. e ., reasoning from false premises, have impaired 
their naturally fine faculties. Mr. Gage, if we must credit 
him with sincerity, has come to the same condition by 
financial dissipation. But his plan is not as vicious as 
some. To furnish the needed foundation for national bank 
circulation he would have the treasury issue $250,000,000 
of 2^4 per cent, bonds, for which greenbacks or Sherman 
notes should be paid. The money paid would not become 
an asset of the government. It would be canceled, 
destroyed, burned up. Of his scheme the Chicago Times 
well says : 

“Like other bankers, he thinks the chief end to be 
sought is to relieve the government of the duty of issuing 
the circulating medium of the country. Upon this point 
we must note an emphatic disagreement with Mr. Gage, 
and with the whole school of financiers of which he is a 
type.” 

A specimen of the demoralization and danger of the 
times is seen in a recent statement of Senator Gorman, 
that he and Quay had settled in their minds that a certain 
government bond scheme, like that of Mr 0 Gage, in eight 
items, including some about silver, was about the only 
proposition that could pass the present Congress. No. 3 
among the eight items coolly dismisses the greenback 
thus: “The legal tenders to be retired and canceled as 
the bonds are put out.” 

On the other hand, the Chicago Inter Ocean , which is 
repenting of some of its financial sins, and remembering 
what a good Greenback paper it was in 1878, says: 

“One of the perils of the present financial situation is 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


339 


the disposition shown to reopen the greenback question. 
It took fifteen years to fight the great battle. Secretary 
McCulloch attempted to take snap judgment against legal- 
tender notes, paying them off at a rapid rate. Illinois, 
through one of its Congressmen, E. C. Ingersoll, stepped 
in the very first day Congress convened after that paying- 
off process had begun with a resolution which stopped it. 
Then began the intriguing of the Eastern bankers to 
destroy the greenbacks, and when the last decisive conflict 
occurred Illinois was again in the leadership, G. L. Fort 
being the especial champion of the greenback cause as 
against both the contractionists and the expansionists. 
There was a great victory. For half a generation the anti- 
greenbackers have been quiescent. They have come to 
the front again with this session of Congress. The knock- 
out received in caucus Monday ought to satisfy them that 
the greenback is here to stay. There never could be a 
better money. It is good for its face the world over. In 
that uttermost end of the earth, China or Japan, the United 
States legal-tender note is good for its face value, and, 
whatever changes are made, that part of our currency 
should remain intact. Should the current of Congressional 
events occasion a show of hands in the Republican party 
on this question, no doubt an overwhelming majority 
would say, as did the Democratic caucus, let the green- 
backs alone.” 

An extraordinary scene in the House between Rep- 
resentatives Hepburn and Hendrix so fairly illustrates the 
muddled stupidity and impudence of the gold-bugs that it 
deserves notice here as a sign of the situation. Mr. Hep- 
burn described Mr. Hendrix as a self-heralded national 
banker, who came here with oracular utterances to tell the 
House what to do. Mr. Hepburn said his self-laudation 
was impaired by the recollection of his speech sixteen 
months ago, when the same conditions existed. Mr. 
Hendrix then found the panacea for all financial ills in the 
repeal of the Sherman silver law. 

Before describing this discussion, attention should be 


34 ° 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


called to the fact that the panic of 1893 was immediately 
brought on by the bankers because Secretary Carlisle 
undertook to perform about the only good deed he has 
ventured upon as Secretary, i. e., to pay the Sherman 
treasury notes according to the letter of the act of July 14, 
1890, in silver, just as France would have done . Now mark 
how Hendrix ‘ 4 opened his mouth and put his foot in it,” 
and how, finally, Hepburn tripped him. 

Mr. Hendrix described at some length the process by 
which the gold was withdrawn by speculators for shipment 
abroad, and then proceeded to contrast this with the 
situation in France, where the Bank of France refused to 
pay, except where actually necessary, more than five per 
cent, of gold on its demand obligations. These aggressions 
on our gold reserve must be stopped, and if the pending 
bill would stop them, afford relief, take the government 
out of the banking business, as it has been taken out of 
the silver business, he would vote for it. 

“Does the action of the Bank of France, in refusing to 
pay more than five per cent, in gold,” asked Mr. Hepburn, 
“impair the credit of that bank? ” 

“No.” 

“Then would the credit of the United States be 
impaired if the United States should exercise its discretion 
and redeem the Sherman notes in silver?” 

“Yes, I believe it would at this time,” replied Mr. 
Hendrix. 

“Why?” 

“ Because of the general distrust of the government’s 
ability to pay in gold. One hundred and fifty-nine million 
dollars of Sherman gold promises [?] to pay cannot be met 
without gold. ” 

“But the notes are redeemable in coin, not in gold,” 
was Mr. Hepburn’s parting shot. 


AMERICAN’ FINANCIAL HISTORY. 


341 


Mr. Hepburn declared that Mr. Hendrix had pointed 
out unwittingly the remedy for the present evil when he 
told the House that the great banking houses of Europe 
exercised their discretion about depleting their gold vaults. 
“ Why will not the Secretary of the Treasury exercise the 
same discretion?” he asked, amid a round of applause. 
“The exercise of this discretion did not impair the credit 
of European banks. Who dared to say that the credit of 
this country, with 65,000,000 people behind it, and an 
unlimited taxing power, would be impaired because it 
refused to kneel at the demands of the Shylocks?” 

“Why have not the Republican Secretaries of the 
Treasury exercised that discretion?” asked Mr. Pence of 
Colorado. 

“I have not been Secretary of the Treasury,” replied 
Mr. Hepburn hotly. “When I am I will answer. I am 
as fully convinced, however, as I am that I am alive, that 
if the Secretary of the Treasury were now to exercise his 
discretion and pay gold when legitimate redemptions were 
asked, and refuse it to sharks and speculators, the evils 
from which we suffer would cease to be.” 

A broader view is that the prime motive of the Secretary 
in exercising his discretion should be the welfare of the 
government ; and gold should be refused where its pay- 
ment is likely to hurt the treasury. 

In the foregoing pages we have attempted to give such a 
bird’s-eye view of American money and finance as would 
serve as an example and warning for the future. We 
behold in this short story how our finances were con- 
tinually run upon the rocks and shoals of a false “political 
economy,” so-called, and how they were occasionally 
pulled off — though remaining most of the time stuck fast 
in the most dismal way. 


342 


PRESENT DA V PROBLEMS. 


As to the general aspects of the money question this is 
added : 

Our financial kings have kept two purposes in view. 
First: To have our money issued by and for the special 
use of private institutions called banks ; and to have this 
money scanty in quantity and of fluctuating value. Second: 
To issue, foster and maintain, by all possible means, bonds 
and other interest-bearing obligations, as the most con- 
venient means of transferring to the few the product of the 
industry of the many. 

To maintain these humbugs, they use learned language, 
like doctors writing prescriptions in Latin. All the expert 
handlers of money, stocks, etc., hate nothing so much as 
that which is best for the other classes, viz., steady values. 
Their delight is in ups and downs; and then, if specula- 
tors, their effort is to be on the winning side. With 
brokers, every change is profitable. With them it is: 
‘‘Heads I win, tails you lose.” Copernicus said of the 
work of these traitors: “It is not by a blow, but little by 
little, and through a secret and obscure approach, that it 
destroys the state.” Further back in the ages Plato, 
Lycurgus and Solon saw this most plainly. 

The new American system of money is plainly and 
briefly this : Abundant government fiat paper money — 
founded upon the wealth and credit of a great, stable 
nation ; such money to to be kept at a steady purchasing 
power by the increase and decrease of its volume; and to 
be quite void of intrinsic value, and quite free from par- 
ticular commodities as bases for the monetary units. 

For the present we wish free coinage of gold and silver 
at 16 to i. The ultimate of gold and silver will probably 
be free coinage for all who bring them to the mints, into 
suitable coins stamped with their weight and fineness, and 
returned to the owners to be used as they choose. And 


AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY . 


343 

no one will lie awake nights for fear the metals will go 
abroad. 

When we get that “ honest ” fiat paper dollar, nothing 
will call for an extra session of Congress quicker than any 
prospect of a change in its purchasing power, after we 
have once got it to a generally satisfactory point, say about 
the buying power of our dollar in 1866. While any kind 
of a change, up or down, suits many gamblers and specu- 
lators, the steady increase in the buying power of the 
dollar, for thirty years past, has been destroying the pro- 
ducers of this country and largely creating the pestiferous 
breed of millionaires. 

The bulk of our money wars have been crowded into 
the past thirty years. We might call them “ Our Thirty 
Years’ War.” Its history has been utterly, wofully and 
willfully misrepresented by such pseudo-historians as 
Sumner of Yale and David A. Wells. 

Those years nearly cover the great and little panics of 
1837, ’47, ’57, ’60, ’73, ’84, ’85, ’90 and ’93. Vast tomes 
might be written concerning the manifold causes. One 
cause has always been foremost in them — scarcity of legal- 
tender money. 

At times our rulers have tried to deceive us by a great 
show of abundant currency. Such were the fifteen kinds 
of money thrust upon the nation to confuse it during the 
civil war, by McCulloch and Sherman. 

Why need we here repeat the many-times-told tales of 
the craft of the national banks, demonetization of silver, 
the mystery and raised value of gold, Rothschild tricks, 
the control of our finances and politics by Europe, and the 
gradual merging of the gold Democrats and Republicans 
into practically one party? 

The bankers’ rebellion of 1881, which conquered Presi- 
dent Hayes. The whirling of stock values up two billions 


344 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


then and down again in 1883. The deluge of trusts and 
syndicates in full tide in 1887. The bogus silver bill of 
1890. Cleveland’s object-lesson of ruin and misery in 
1893. The counting out of victorious Bryan in 1896. 
And now the ghostly attempt to bring prosperity by tariff 
bills and Lyman Gage “currency reform,” while millions 
of deceived, disappointed, dazed, discouraged, almost 
maddened Americans suffer all the tortures of poverty. 

And the end is not yet. 


IV. 


THE EIGHT MONEY CONSPIRACIES. 

“When I stand in the United States Treasury, T stand on 
English soil.” — Nathaniel P. Banks. 

££ T X UGH McCULLOCH hamstrung the whole na- 
I tion. His management of the finances, while 
it enriched him and made him a great London 
banker, has cost the American people more than the war 
did.” These words were uttered by Hon. William D. 
Kelley, and they are true as gospel. They would be 
equally true if the name of John Sherman were substituted 
for that of Hugh McCulloch. 

That the constant aim and object of the manipulators of 
our financial legislation since the war has been to contract 
the currency and to burden the people with interest-bear- 
ing debt, thereby enriching the usurers and impoverishing 
the producing classes, is evidenced in the following brief 
summary of the eight principal enactments affecting money 
which passed Congress since 1861 : 

i. The Exception Clause. (Feb. 25, 1862.) In 1861 
and 1862 demand treasury notes to the amount of $60,000,- 
000 were issued by the government and made legal-tender 
money for all debts, public and private — equal to coin. 
Wall Street could not gamble in legal-tender paper money ; 
so, as soon as the legal-tender act passed the House and 
was sent to the Senate, the Shylocks placed on the green- 
back what is known as the “ exception clause” — “ Except 
duties on imports and interest on the public debt.” This 
practically demonetized the United States treasury note, 

345 


34 6 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


and cost the producing classes millions of dollars. The 
greenback “went down,” or, more correctly speaking, gold 
“went up,” until $i in paper money was valued at only 
37 cents when campared with gold. John Sherman said: 
“We purposely depreciated the greenback, to get sale for 
our bonds.” He was willing to destroy the people’s n;oney 
to appease the greed of gold gamblers at home and abroad. 

2. The National Bank Act. (Feb. 25, 1863.) This 
scheme was introduced in the Senate and advocated by 
John Sherman in the interest of bondholders and capital- 
ists, just one year after legal-tender notes were authorized 
by law, and before sufficient time had been given to test 
their utility. The express object was to have the bank 
notes supersede the legal-tender notes, after the invest- 
ment of legal tenders in bonds. 

“I look upon the national bank, as now recognized by 
law,” says Myers in his “Money, Its History and Func- 
tions,” “as one of the most gigantic schemes for robbing 
the people ever devised by man. I cannot conceive of a 
single reason for perpetuating the system one day beyond 
the time required to settle it's affairs. The national banks 
of this country have cost the people, in thirty years of 
their existence, over $6,000,000,000. The credit which 
the banker sells at from 7 to 15 per cent, costs him only 
1 per cent, on actual circulation ; hence it is virtually a 
present to him. He draws interest on this credit ; on what 
he himself owes. His note is not money, nor is it in any 
sense a legal tender between man and man. It is simply a 
‘promise to pay.’ The banker lends his credit , with which 
he has supplied himself by gift from the government, and 
the borrower pledges his wealth ; the banker being far more 
secure than the holder of the banker’s paper. The banker 
takes pay for something he does not furnish ; for the cap- 
ital (wealth) is furnished by the borrower. So the banker 


THE EIGHT MONEY CONSPIRACIES. 


347 

gets something for nothing, and the borrower pays for that 
which he never receives.” 

Banks are run on the deposits, rather than on any capital 
the banker himself may have. The patrons of the bank 
furnish the capital, and also the security. The banker 
lends other people’s money to other people; on this he 
draws interest ; he conducts his business on your money 
and his credit, which you furnish him. 

Now, if the government can afford to let the banker have 
credit at i per cent, on actual circulation, why can’t the 
treasury supply all the people with legal-tender money at 
the same rate? Why not issue the money direct to the 
people and then pay interest into the United States treas- 
ury, instead of into the coffers of corporate institutions? 
National banks are expensive luxuries which we don’t 
need. So let the people unite in demanding their abolition 
at once, and then institute in their stead United States 
banks, sub-treasuries if you please, backed by all the 
people, and hence absolutely safe. This would make a 
government for the people , instead of for the corporations. 
Let us do business on the credit of the people — on the 
credit of the government ; not, as we are now doing, on 
the credit of banks and bankers. 

3. The Funding Act. (April 12, 1866.) Commonly 
called contraction. This law authorized the Secretary of 
the Treasury to retire the legal-tender notes by investing 
them in 6 per cent, bonds. Contraction continued until 
some $1,500,000,000 were destroyed, and a corresponding 
amount of 6 per cent, bonds issued. The treasury notes, 
or legal tenders, were nearly all non-interest-bearing. 
This reduction of the currency was an outrage upon 
the people. The volume should have been increased 
to keep pace with an increasing population. But Shylock 
must have interest. 


34§ 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


4. The Credit-Strengthening Act. (March 18, 1869.) 
This law provided that the legal-tender treasury notes 
be paid in coin, as also all interest-bearing obligations 
of the government. Prior to the passage of this law 
public obligations had been payable in the lawful money of 
the country; the greenback was lawful money, redeemable 
the same as gold and silver coin, except duties on imports 
and interest on the public debt. The credit of the nation 
was good, and needed no strengthening. The war was 
over, and the country was prosperous and the people con- 
tented. Why, then, add another burden? 

5. An Act Refunding the Public Debt. (July 14, 
1870.) This act authorized the issue and sale of $1,500,- 
000,000 United States bonds, to refund 5-20 bonds and 
make them conform to the law of i860. To fund means to 
put public obligatious into stocks and securities, making 
them interest-bearing. 

The public debt should have been paid, as at first pro- 
vided, in the lawful currency of the country, gold, silver 
and treasury notes. The law of 1869 added $500,000,000 
to the 5-20 bonds, by making them payable in coin; then 
to refund the bonds, just to please English Shylocks, 
is villainy unnamed and unnamable. 

6. The Demonetization of Silver. (Feb. 12, 1873.) 
The act of 1869 had made all public obligations payable in 
coin, gold or silver; while the act of 1873, clandestinely 
passed, by omitting the silver dollar from the list of coins 
enumerated, practically demonetized silver, making the 
public debt, interest and all, as well as the paper currency, 
payable in gold coin — a further contraction of the volume of 
currency. 

The silver dollar was created by the Congress of the 
United States on April 2, 1792, and made the unit of value. 
It contains 412^ grains of standard silver, nine parts pure 


THE EIGHT MONEY CONSPIRACIES. 


349 


silver, one part alloy. At that time the mints of all the 
principal nations of the world were open to the free coin- 
age of both gold and silver. That is, all of such metal 
presented to the mints could be converted into money 
without any charge except the actual cost of coining. The 
ratio then was about 15^ to 1 ; that is, one ounce of gold 
was equal to 15^ ounces of silver. January 18, 1837, the 
ratio between gold and silver coins of the United States 
was changed to 15.988 to 1, commonly referred to as 
16 to 1. 

The act demonetizing silver was understood by few, and, 
in fact, many of those who voted for it, and President Grant, 
who signed the bill, were unaware of its actual meaning and 
effect. The money speculators of England, backed by 
cupidity and ignorance on this side, were its real instigators. 
There was every reason in the world why England should 
desire the demonetization of silver here. She is a creditor 
nation, and her capitalists hold vast amounts in government 
and other securities abroad. From this country alone the 
capitalists of Great Britain derive each year more than five 
hundred millions of dollars for interest on their invest- 
ments, all of which is paid in gold or its equivalent. The 
United States produces an enormous quantity of silver, 
but we very humbly sibmit to the gold standard as set up 
by Great Britain. We deny ourselves the right to use a 
metal of which we have an abundance and adopt one more 
scarce and, consequently, more expensive. By this policy 
we are forced to purchase gold abroad, thus adding con- 
stantly to the burden of a perpetual, interest-bearing 
national debt. 

By accomplishing the demonetization of silver in this 
country, England gained a double victory, for the govern- 
ments of the Latin Union, France, Belgium, Italy, Switz- 
erland and Greece, were soon afterward forced to suspend 


350 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


silver coinage. The gain to England and the loss to the 
other countries involved, especially to the United States, 
by this general demonetization of silver, can hardly be 
estimated. The loss, of course, was the heaviest in this 
country, where the production of silver is very large, 
where so many are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and 
where a large and freely circulating volume of money is so 
essential to commercial activity. 

Before silver was demonetized, we were under the burden 
of an enormous national debt, but every dollar of this was 
payable in silver. The stimulated demand for gold, and, 
consequently, its increase in value, was not the only gain 
to England. She now buys our cheap silver bullion, 
exchanges it at its coinage value for products in the silver- 
using countries of Asia, Africa and South America, and 
nets a profit of over one hundred per cent, by the transac- 
tion. We then buy from her at gold prices and pay with 
gold or products at prices which, by forcing us into com' 
petition with the world, England fixes herself. 

7. The Resumption of Specie Payment. (January 
14, 1875.) This law provided for the retirement of the 
fractional currency ($45,000,000) and the legal-tender 
treasury notes, their places to be supplied by national 
bank notes, which are not a legal tender between man and 
man. The name “specie payment” is simply a blind ; it 
does not mean anything ; to get rid of the much despised 
greenback was the real object of the act. The moneyed 
aristocracy had long ago confessed their inability to “con- 
trol” the “greenback as it is called.” Had the provisions 
of this law been carried out, it would have added to our 
annual interest charge about twenty millions of dollars. 

8. The Sherman Purchasing Clause. (July 14, 1890.) 
This act was a miserable makeshift or substitute for a free 
Coinage bill. It provided for the purchase of not less 


THE EIGHT MONEY CONSPIRACIES. 


351 


than 2,000,000 nor more than 4,500,000 ounces of silver 
bullion per month, 2,000,000 ounces of which was to be 
coined each month into silver dollars until July 1, 1891. 
Instead of redeeming the treasury notes issued in the pur- 
chase of silver with their equivalent in silver, upon the 
demand of the holder, the Secretary of the Treasury was 
required to redeem these notes in gold or silver coin at his 
discretion. The legal-tender power of the silver dollar 
was modified so as to read: “ Except otherwise expressly 
stipulated in the contract.” In 1893 President Cleveland 
called Congress together in extraordinary session to con- 
sider the financial condition of the country. November 1, 
1893, the Sherman law was repealed, leaving us on a single 
gold basis. 



V. 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 

“ Above all things good policy is to be used, that the treasures 
and money of the state be not gathered into a few hands ; for, 
otherwise, a state may have great stock and yet starve. And 
money is like muck, not good unless spread. This is done by sup- 
pressing, or at least keeping a strait hand upon the devouring trade 
of usury, engrossing, great pasturages and the like.” — Bacon. 

T HE following is a carefully prepared collection of 
quotations from the writings and speeches of emi- 
nent statesmen, jurists, financiers and economists, 
ancient and modern, foreign and American. It will be 
found not only interesting and instructive to the casual 
reader, but of extreme value to the student for reference : 

Alexander Hamilton (report on the mint, 1791): “To 
annul the use of either of the metals as money is to abridge 
the quantity of the circulating medium. It is liable to all 
the objections that arise from a comparison of the benefits 
of a full with the evils of a scanty circulation.” 

Benjamin Franklin , April 3, 1792 (Jared Sparks, page 
255) : “Want of money in a country reduces the price of 
that part of its products which is used in trade. A plenti- 
ful currency will occasion the trading produce to bear a 
good price.” 

Page 185 of his autobiography (speaking of his pam- 
phlet on “The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency,” 
for the purpose of increasing the circulation): “It was 
well received by the common people in general, but the 
rich men disliked it, for it increased as well as strength- 
ened the clamor for more money. The utility of this cur- 
rency by experience became so evident as never to be 

352 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


353 


much disputed, so that it grew soon to be ^55,0 00, and 
in 1879 to ^80,000, since which it rose to ,£350,000, 
trade, buildings and inhabitants all the while increasing.” 

Daniel Webster: “A contraction of the currency, even 
if not sudden, contracts business, discourages enterprise 
and restrains the commercial spirit. A sudden contrac- 
tion aggravates these circumstances.” 

Henry Clay (debate on the sub-treasury, 1840): “The 
proposed substitution of an exclusive metallic currency to 
the medium with which we have been so long familiar is 
forbidden by the principles of eternal justice. Assuming 
the currency of the country to consist of two-thirds paper 
and one of specie, and assuming, also, that the money of 
a country, whatever may be its component parts, regulates 
all values, and expresses the true amount which the debtor 
has to pay his creditor, the effect of the change upon that 
relation, and upon the property of the country, would be 
most ruinous. All property would be reduced in value to 
one-third of its present nominal amount, and every debtor 
would, in effect, have to pay three times as much as he 
had contracted for. The pressure of our foreign debt 
would be three times as great as it is, while the six 
hundred millions, which is about the sum now probably 
due to the banks from the people, would be multiplied to 
eighteen hundred millions! ... A man, for example, 
owning property to the value of $5,000, contracts a debt 
of $5,000. By the reduction of one-half of the currency 
of the country, his property in effect becomes reduced to 
the value of $2,500. But his debt undergoes no corre- 
sponding reduction. . . . But if the effect of this hard 
money policy upon the debtor class be injurious, it is still 
more disastrous, if possible, on the laboring classes. . . . 
Of all the subjects of national policy, not one ought to be 
touched with so much delicacy as that of the wages — in 


354 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


other words, the bread — of the poor man. In dwelling, as 
I have often done, with inexpressible satisfaction, upon the 
many advantages of our country, there is not one that has 
given me more delight than the high price of manual 
labor. There is not one which indicates more clearly the 
prosperity of the mass of the community. . . . 

“The revulsions of 1837 produced a far greater havoc than 
was experienced in the period above mentioned. The ruin 
came quick and fearful. There were few that could save 
themselves. Property of every description was parted 
with at sacrifices that were astounding, and as for the cur- 
rency, there was scarcely any at all. In some parts of the 
interior of Pennsylvania the people were obliged to divide 
bank notes into halves, quarters, eighths, and so on, and 
agree from necessity to use them as money. In Ohio, 
with all her abundance, it was hard to get money to pay 
taxes. The sheriff of Muskingum County, as stated in the 
Guernsey Times , in the summer of 1842, sold at auction 
one four-horse wagon at $5.50 ; ten hogs at 6 % cents each ; 
two horses (said to be worth from $50 to $75 each) at $2 
each; two cows at $1 each; a barrel of sugar at $1.50, 
and a store of goods at that rate. In Pike County, Missouri, 
as stated by the Hannibal Journal, the sheriff sold three 
horses at $1.50 each; one large ox at 12 cents; five 
cows, two steers and one calf, the lot at $3.25 ; twenty sheep 
at 13 y 2 cents each; twenty-four hogs for 25 cents for the 
lot; one eight-day clock at $2.50 ; a lot of tobacco, seven 
or eight hogsheads, at $5 ; three stacks of hay at 25 cents 
each. ” 

Horace Greeley (“ Political Economy,” page 65) : “They 
[false economists] assume that if half the money in a 
country leaves it for goods imported, the residue will per- 
form the functions previously devolved on the whole, save 
only that there will be a general reduction of prices. I, on 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


355 


the contrary, issue an appeal to the experience of man- 
kind to sustain me that in such cases the remainder, so far 
from subserving the end formerly answered by the larger 
volume of currency, will not even subserve half of it, for 
it will all but cease to circulate at all. ... In its absence 
the people will quite generally be driven back to barter, a 
discouragement of industry and a long stride on the down- 
ward road to barbarism.” 

Treasurer Spinner (that portion of his report for Decem- 
ber, 1873, which was suppressed by President Grant) : 
“When . . . legitimate money becomes more and more 
abundant, credits are asked for and given on shorter and 
shorter time, until the time comes when there is money 
sufficient to transact all the legitimate business and to 
effect all necessary exchanges of the merchantable com- 
modities of the country ; then private credits will be 
almost entirely unknown, as will commercial revulsions 
and consequent panics. . . . Inflation can only be when 
the people are excessively in debt. Such is not the 
position when money is plentiful ; for when money is 
plentiful people get out of debt and acquire habits of 
promptness, punctuality, and pay as they go.” 

George S. Coe ( “Financial History of the War”) : “As 
the war progressed and the country became poorer, the 
currency increased. It is strange that all other property 
was eagerly sought for in preference to this, and that 
prodigal expenditure became the law of the land.” 

Report of George S. Coe , John J. Knox , fames Harsen 
Rhoades and W. P. St. John (committee of New York 
Chamber of Commerce, 1891) : “The enlarged volume [of 
legal-tender money], besides disturbing the equitable 
relations of men to each other, at once adjusts itself to the 
prices of all commodities and relatively enhances their 
cost, so as to absorb at once whatever advances their 


356 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


cost. . . . This is why thoughtful men see in any issue of 
legal-tender notes the way to inevitable destruction.” 

Robert G. Ingersoll : “We have passed through a period 
of wonderful and unprecedented inflation. For years every 
kind of business has been pressed to the very sky line. A 
wave of wealth swept over the United States. Tatters 
became garments and garments became robes. Walls 
were covered with pictures, floors with carpets, and for 
the first time in the history of the world the poor tasted 
all the luxuries of wealth. But monopoly changed that 
paradise into hell by creating a money famine.” 

John J. Ingalls : “No people in a great emergency ever 
found a faithful ally in gold. It is the most cowardly and 
treacherous of all metals. It makes no treaty it does not 
break; it has no friend it does not sooner or later betray. 
In times of panic and calamity, shipwreck and disaster, it 
becomes the agent and minister of ruin. No nation ever 
fought a great war by the aid of gold. In the crisis of the 
greatest peril it becomes an enemy more potent than the 
foe in the field. ... In our own civil war it is doubtful if 
the gold of New York and London did not work us greater 
injury than the powder and lead and iron of the rebels. 
It was the most invincible enemy of the public credit. It 
was in open alliance with our enemies the world over, and 
all its energies were evoked for our destruction. But, as 
usual, when danger has been averted and the victory 
secured, gold swaggers to the front and asserts supremacy.” 

Hugh McCulloch , Secretary of the Treasury (.1866) : “The 
process of contracting the circulation of the government 
notes should go on just as rapidly as possible without pro- 
ducing a financial crash.” 

John A. Logan( Feb. 17,1874): “You may theorize and 
argue to the farmers until you are hoarse, and you will fail 
to get them to prefer low prices to high ones for their 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


35 7 


products. . . . The people have and do realize that their 
most prosperous times were when currency was the most 
plentiful. . . . 

“I can see the people of our Western States, who are 
producers, reduced to the condition of serfs to pay interest 
on public and private debts to the money sharks of Wall 
Street, New York, and of Threadneedle Steet in London, 
England. And this will be accomplished by withdrawing 
the treasury notes from circulation, and destroying them 
until the banks can control the entire volume of money. 

. . . It was the contraction and increased want of currency, 
and not a superabundance, which produced the necessity 
for running in debt. 

“Falling prices and misery and destruction are insepara- 
ble companions. The disasters of the dark ages were 
caused by decreasing money and falling prices. With the 
increase of money labor and industry gain new life. 

“I can see benefit only to the money-holders and those 
who receive interest and have fixed incomes. I can see, 
as a result of this legislation, our business operations 
crippled and wages for labor reduced to a mere pittance. 
I can see the beautiful prairies of my own State and of the 
great West, which are blooming as gardens, with cheerful 
homes rising like white towers along the pathway of 
improvement, again sinking back to idleness. I can see 
mortgage fiends at their hellish work. I can seethe hopes 
of the industrious farmers blasted as they burn corn for 
fuel, because its price will not pay the cost of transportation 
and dividends on millions of dollars of fictitious railway 
stocks and bonds.” 

Preston B. Plumb (Senate, April, 1880) : “The contrac- 
tion of the currency by 5 per cent, of its volume means 
the depreciation of the property of the country three 
billions of dollars.” 


35 ^ 


PRESENT day problems. 


The Chicago Tribune (1878): “Straight along for four 
and a half years the dollar has grown dearer and larger, 
the debts heavier and harder to pay, and the value of 
property has withered; business has been done at a con- 
tinual loss. Real estate — lands, lots and improvements, 
the foundation of all wealth — has gone down year after 
year in value, while the mortgages have devoured it, wiping 
out equities and all that had been paid thereon, and 
annihilating multitudes of fortunes.” 

President Grant (message, 1870): “Immediate resump- 
tion, if practicable, is not desirable. It would compel the 
debtor class to pay beyond their contracts the premium on 
gold at the date of their purchase and would bring bank- 
ruptcy and ruin to thousands.” 

Message of 1873: “The experience of the present 
panic has proven that the currency of the country, based 
as it is upon its credit, is the best that has ever been 
devised. 

“To increase our exports, sufficient currency is required 
to keep all the industries of the country employed. 
Without this, national as well as individual bankruptcy 
must ensue. . . . 

“Prices keep pace with the volume of money.” 

John Sherman (1869): “The contraction of the cur- 
rency is a far more distressing thing than Senators sup- 
pose. Our own and other nations have gone through that 
process before. It is not possible to take that voyage 
without the sorest distress. To every person except a 
capitalist out of debt it is a period of loss, of danger, 
lassitude of trade, fall of wages, suspension of enterprise, 
bankruptcy and disaster.” 

William D. Kelley (House of Representatives, Jan. 3, 
1867): “The experiment [on contracting the currency], 
if attempted as a means of hastening specie payments, will 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


359 


prove a failure, but not a harmless one. It will be fatal to 
the prospects of a majority of the business men of this 
generation, and strip the frugal laboring people of the 
country of the small but hard-earned sums they have 
deposited in savings banks. It will make money scarce 
and employment uncertain. It will increase the purchas- 
ing power of money, and by thus unsettling values will 
paralyze trade, suspend production and deprive industry of 
employment. It will make the money of the rich man 
more valuable and deprive the poor man of his entire 
capital, the value of his labor, by depriving him of employ- 
ment. Its final effect will be widespread bankruptcy.” 

Toledo Blade (May 17, 1877): “In financial crises the 
thing men want is money ; that which everybody must 
receive in payment of debt or forever thereafter forego all 
claim of interest thereon. What men want in such seasons 
of panic and distress is that which will pay a note in a 
bank, will meet the exactions of government, will avert 
the sacrifice of homestead, warehouse or other property by 
sheriff’s or marshal’s sale ; which, being money, will, when 
tendered in payment, arrest such proceedings. . . . The 
existence and inflexibility of the law are indisputable. If 
the volume of money is increased creditors complain that 
the prices of commodities are further enhanced.” 

George William Curtis ( Harper's Weekly , July, 1877): 
“There can be no doubt that as the volume of money 
decreases the purchasing power increases. ... It is 
unquestionably true that it is a maxim of money that the 
increase of its volume decreases and the decrease increases 
the purchasing power of the unit. ... It may be a fair 
question whether the demonetization of silver did not 
increase the value of gold.” 

Thomas Ewing (November 22, 1877): “No greater 
wrong can be inflicted on the people by government than 


360 PRESEN7 1 PROBLEMS. 

a contraction of the volume of the currency. The prices 
of commodities, whether land, product or labor, are deter- 
mined absolutely by the effective volume of the currency. 
An increase of the volume raises the price of com- 
modities.” 

James G. Blaine (House, February 7, 1878): “The 
destruction of silver as money and establishing gold as the 
sole unit of value must have a ruinous effect on all forms of 
property except those investments which yield a fixed 
return in money. These would gain an unfair advantage 
over other species of property. ” 

James A. Garfield (1880): “Whoever controls the vol 
ume of currency is absolute master of the industry and 
commerce of the country.” 

Senator Mills, of Texas (House, February 3, 1886) : “ But 
the crime that is now sought to be perpetrated on more 
than fifty millions of people comes neither from the camp 
of a conqueror, the hand of a foreigner, nor the altar of 
an idolator. It comes from the cold, phlegmatic marble 
heart of avarice — avarice that seeks to paralyze labor, 
increase the burden of debt, and fill the land with destitu- 
tion and suffering to gratify the lust for gold — avarice sur- 
rounded by every comfort that wealth can command, and 
rich enough to satisfy every want save that which refuses 
to be satisfied without the suffocation and strangulation of 
all the labor of the land. With a forehead that refuses to 
be ashamed it demands of Congress an act that will 
paralyze all the forces of production, shut out labor from 
all employment, increase the burden of debts and taxation, 
and send desolation and suffering to all the homes of the 
poor.” 

Leland Stanford (Senate, March 10, 1890): “An abund- 
ance of money means universal activity, bringing in its 
train all the blessings that belong to a constantly employed, 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


361 


industrious, intelligent people. . . . Abundant and cheap 
money places the power in the hands of the industrious. 

. . . Cheap and abundant money means co-operation of 
labor to an extent hitherto unknown. . . . Would go 
far towards aiding his [labor’s] intelligence, toward real- 
izing his highest destiny. It seems to me that the 
great thought of humanity should be how to advance the 
great multitude of toilers, increase their power of pro- 
duction and elevate their condition. ... To me one of 
the most effective means of placing at man’s disposal 
the force inherent in the value of property is through 
furnishing a bountiful supply of money. ... If money 
were suddenly annihilated from all business affairs there 
would be a general suspension of business all over the 
country. It is the duty of statesmen to furnish the means, 
if possible, to find out the way by which the Creator’s 
design for the highest advance of civilization is to be 
obtained. Want, discomfort and misery are not neces- 
sarily the heritage of the industrious and provident man. 
So far as I can ascertain, no government has ever attempted 
to furnish an adequate supply of money or establish any 
standard by which its want could be ascertained.” 

John G. Carlisle (in the House, February 21, 1878): 
“According to my views of the subject the conspiracy 
which seems to have been formed here and in Europe to 
destroy by legislation and otherwise from three-sevenths to 
one-half the metallic money of the world is the most 
gigantic crime of this or any other age. The consumma- 
tion of such a scheme would ultimately entail more misery 
upon the human race than all the wars, pestilences and 
famines that ever occurred in the history of the world. 
The absolute and instantaneous destruction of half the 
entire movable property of the world, including houses, 
ships, railroads and other appliances for carrying on com- 


362 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS . 


merce, wjiile it would be felt more sensibly at the moment, 
would not produce anything like the prolonged distress 
and disorganization of society that must inevitably result 
from the permanent annihilation of one-half the metallic 
money of the world.” 

John G. Carlisle (speaking for the Bland bill, 1878): ‘‘It 
will reverse the grinding process that has been going on 
for the last few years. Instead of constant and ruthless 
contraction, instead of constant appreciation of money 
and depreciation of property, we will have expansion to the 
extent of at least $2,000,000 a month, and under its influ- 
ence the exchangeable value of commodities, including 
labor, will soon begin to rise, thus inviting investments, 
infusing life into the dead industries of the country, 
and quickening the pulsations of trade in all its depart- 
ments.” 

Secretary Windom (Jan. 31, 1891): “ The ideal financial 

system would be one that should furnish just enough abso- 
lutely sound money to meet the legitimate wants of trade, 
and no more. Had it not been for the peculiar condition 
which enabled the United States to disburse over seventy- 
five million dollars in about two and a half months last 
autumn, I am firmly convinced that the stringency in 
August and September would have resulted in widespread 
financial ruin.” 

Chauncey M. Depew : * ‘ Fifty men can paralyze the whole 

country, for they can control the circulation of the currency, 
and create panic whenever they will.” 

Hon . G. G. Symes , of Colorado (commenting on the 
demonetization of silver) : “There would be truly enough 
money to do the business after the shrinkage of prices and 
the financial disasters. For the new order of things and 
basis of values there would still be gold enough to carry on 
the business. It would only require one-half after the new 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 363 

condition and basis was reached. The monometallists, 
then, would still argue that gold was not scarce.” 

Henry Clews , Wall Street financier (March 16, 1895) : 
“Wall Street keeps a quick eye upon the prospects of the 
suggested international silver conference. It sees in the 
adoption of a world-wide policy of bimetallism the certainty 
of a material increase in the metallic money of the commer- 
cial nations, and assumes that, in such case, there would be 
a general rise in values and a consequent speculative 
boom of wide dimensions.” 

Franklin H. Head , of Chicago (business man); “That 
an increase in the quantity of money reduces prices, and a 
diminution lowers them, as stated by Mill and other 
economic writers, is the most elementary proposition in the 
theory of currency, and without it we should have no key 
to any of the others.” 

Amasa Walker , of Massachusetts : “Other things being 
equal, the amount of currency in circulation determines the 
prices of everything that is for sale ; and these are increased 
or diminished as the volume of the currency is increased or 
diminished.” 

A. B. Hepburn , of the United States Treasury ( Forum , , 
1894): “When credit is withheld a money stringency is 
easily created.” 

Prof. William G. Sumner , of Yale (“ History of American 
Currency,” page 205) : “ In 1872 this issue was forced out 

of between forty and fifty million, reducing a redundancy 
and enhancing retail prices. ” Page 2 1 1 : “ The war being 

ended, the financial question took this form: ‘Shall we 
withdraw the paper, recover specie, reduce prices, lessen 
imports and live economically until we have made up the 
waste and loss of war? Or shall we keep paper as money?’ 
Mr. McCulloch proposed to contract inflated paper and 
pursue the former alternative.” Page 221 : “The whole 


3&4 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


story goes to show that the value of paper currency depends 
upon its amount.” Page 329: “If, therefore, a nation 
has a specie currency, a drain upon it by an adverse 
balance of trade, a foreign payment, or any other similar 
cause, would immediately produce a lowering of prices and 
a return of current specie until the natural level was once 
more restored.” 

Prof. Francis A. Walker , Yale (“Money,” page 57): 
“ The value of money in any country is determined by the 
quantity existing. Its power of acquisition depends not 
upon its substance, but upon its quantity. . . . That prices 
will fall or rise as the volume of money be increased or 
diminished is a law that is unalterable as any law of 
nature.” Page 210: “Gold and silver undergo great 
changes of value and become in a high degree deceptive. 
Prof. Jevons estimates that the value of gold fell, between 
1789 and 1809, 45 per cent. ; from 1809 to 1849 it rose 145 
per cent., while in the twenty years after 1849 it fell again 
at least 30 per cent. . . . When the process of contraction 
commences the first class on which it falls is the mer- 
chants of the large cities ; they find it difficult to get money 
to pay their debts. The next class is the manufacturer ; 
the sale of his goods at once falls off. Laborers and 
mechanics next feel the pressure ; they are thrown out of 
employment. And lastly the farmer finds a dull sale for 
his produce.” 

Robert Ellis Thompson , M. A., University of Pennsylvania 
(“Political Economy,” page 15 1) : “The influx of money 
into a progressive country is one of the most powerful 
promoters and increasers of production. When it is plenty 
all sorts of productive work is stimulated. Labor is the 
master of capital, and industrial enterprise gains a more 
than proportionally large return for its outlay.” Page 
209: “The possession of a large quantity of money 


FINANCIAL A UTHORITIES. 


365 


enables any country to organize its industries upon such a 
scale as to carry its division of labor to such perfection as 
will bring down the prices of all the products of industry, 
while affording a larger return to both capitalist and 
laborer. It therefore makes such a country a cheap place 
to buy in, mainly because of that accumulation of money 
which was to make everything dear.” 

Professor Thompson (“Political Economy”) quotes 
Thomas Tooke, page 208: “If money has increased, 
industry and trade are increased. ... If iron and cotton 
are scarce, those who need them suffer by the scarcity, but 
it has no effect upon the prices of other materials. If, on 
the other hand, money is scarce, the price of everything 
else is affected. Every one must make exchanges, just as 
when the water falls in the rivers traffic is interrupted 
because the vessels are aground.” 

Professor Francis Bowen , Harvard (“American Political 
Economy,” page 280) : “The whole process of exchange 
may be compared to the process of weighing a well-poised 
balance, the money and the merchandise being placed on 
the opposite arms of the lever. Increase the weight on the 
money side, and the merchandise is sure to rise.” Page 
281 : “The equalization of money is but another name 
for the equalization of prices.” Page 244 : “The prob- 
ability of the notes being redeemed at some future day, 
more or less remote, is not the cause even of the deprecia- 
tion in the value of paper money, . . . but solely on the 
relative amount of the currency compared with the needs 
of business. How great are these needs? Commerce needs 
money or currency enough to enable it to perform its 
peculiar function ; that is, to make the prices of commodi- 
ties in the home market equal or as nearly equal as possible 
to the prices of the same commodities in foreign markets.” 
Page 245 : “ If there is only #100 to buy flour with, and 


366 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS . 


only ten barrels of flour offered for sale, the competition of 
buyers and sellers must fix the price at $10 a barrel. If 
there was twice as much flour, the number of dollars being 
the same, the price must be reduced to $5. On the other 
hand, double the quantity of money; there would be $200 
available for this purpose, and, as at first, only ten barrels 
to be sold; the price would rise to $20 a barrel.” Page 
301 : “The general principle is that the value of money 
falls in precisely the same ratio in which its quantity is 
increased. If the whole quantity of money in circulation 
was doubled, prices would be doubled ; if it was only 
increased one-fourth, prices would rise one-fourth.” 

President Steel , Lawrence University: “The conven- 
tional unit of lineal measure must not be a line which 
averages a foot, though it may be fourteen inches to-day 
and nine inches to-morrow ; for the same reason it is 
desirable that the unit of value should have the same pur- 
chasing power next week as it has now.” 

Prof. Francis Way land Elements of Political Economy, ” 
page 297) : “If there is more money in a country than is 
needed for its exchanges, the price of goods is raised and 
it is sent abroad for new purchases. If there is a scarcitj' 
of money in a country, the price of goods declines, and 
money comes in from other lands to be exchanged for 
them.” Page 298: “If money is abundant because 
business is stagnant and exchanges are few, it is a sign of 
adversity rather than of prosperity.” 

Edwards Pierpont ( North American Review ): “When 
currency is small it is always easy for a few lords of corpora- 
tions and rich money-lenders to combine and lock it up, 
and thus throw down the price of stocks, wheat, cotton 
and other commodities, and work a corner on the currency. 
Thus the market is made tight and extortion easy.” 

John Sheldon {New England Yale Review , March, 1890): 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


36 / 


“This is of supreme importance, for prices tend to carry 
with the amount and not simply with the kind of legal- 
tender money in circulation. The greater the amount the 
higher the range of prices ; the less the circulation the 
lower the prices. Prices tend ever to follow up and down 
the amount of legal-tender money in circulation ; they do 
not tend to fixity of the particular kind of money or 
standard used. ” 

Alexander Baling { before the committee, House of Lords, 
1819): “The reduction of paper would produce all those 
effects which arise from reduction in the amouut of money 
in any country.” 

Sir Robert Peel (May 6, 1844, speaking of the act to 
regulate the currency): “There is no contract, public or 
private, no engagement, national or individual, which is 
unaffected by this.” 

Lord George Bentinck (Parliamentary Debates, about 
1847): “Of all the subtle devices which the wit of man 
has contrived to despoil the community of their property, 
nothing equals the contrivance of laws which limits the 
currency to gold.” 

Lord Beacons field (“ Agricultural Depression ”): “ Gold 

is every day appreciating in value, and as it appreciates in 
value the lower become prices.” 

Sir Walter Scott (speaking of abundant currency): “It 
is not less an issue that the consequences of this banking- 
system as conducted in Scotland have been operated with 
the greatest advantage to the country ; have converted 
Scotland from a poor, miserable and barren country into 
one where, if nature has done less, art and industry have 
done more than in perhaps any country in Europe, Eng- 
land itself not excepted.” 

Encyclopedia Britannica (1859): “A fall in the value of 
precious metals, like a fall of rainwater after a long course 


368 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


of dry weather, may be prejudicial to certain classes. It 
is beneficial to an incomparably greater number, including 
all who are engaged in industrial pursuits, and is, speak- 
ing generally, of great public or national advantage.” 

North British Review (November, 1861): ‘‘Metallic 
money, whilst acting as coin, is identical with paper 
money in respect to being destitute of intrinsic value.” 

William Jocob , F. R. S., gives statistics of the world’s 
volume of money from the year 14 A. D., when it was 
$1,790,000,000, to 806, when it had fallen to $168,000,000. 
The price of a horse in England then was £ 1 15J 2 d; an 
ox, js 2d ; a cow, 6s 2 d; sheep, is 2 d; goat, 4 d.” 

Ernest Seyd (1867, speaking of a reduction in volume): 
“Throughout the world a fall in prices will take place, 
injurious alike to the owners of solid property and to the 
laboring classes, and advantageous only, and unjustifiably 
so, to the holders of state debts and other contracts of that 
kind.” (“Bullion,” 1868 :) “ On this one point all authori- 
ties are agreed : that the large increase in the supply of gold 
has given a universal impetus to trade, commerce and indus- 
try, and to greater social development and progress.” 

Baron Rothschild (French Monetary Convention, 1869): 
“The suppression of silver would amount to a veritable 
destruction of values without any compensation.” 

Ricardo , M. P. (high priest of the bullionists), in his 
reply to Bauset, said: “The value of money in any 
country is determined by the amount existing. . . . The 
commodities would rise or fall in price in proportion to the 
increase or diminution of money. I assume that as a fact 
that is incontrovertible. However debased a coinage may 
become, it will preserve its mint value. ... A well- 
regulated paper currency is so great an improvement in 
commerce that I should greatly regret if prejudice should 
induce us to return to a system of less utility. . . . By 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES . 369 

limiting the quantity of money it can be raised to any 
conceivable value.” 

John R. McCulloch (commenting on Ricardo): “He 
explains the circumstances which determine the value of 
money . . . and he shows . . . its value will depend 
upon the extent to which it may be issued compared to the 
demand. This is a principle of great importance, for it 
shows that intrinsic worth is not necessary to a currency.” 

Speaking in favor of a gradual reduction in the burden 
of debts, through the natural increase in the volume of 
precious metals, McCulloch said: “It promotes industry 
and diminishes the weight of obligations which press upon 
the producing classes, whether employer or employed. 

. . . Thus it appears that, whatever may be the material 
of the money of a country, whether it consists of gold, 
silver, copper, iron, salt, cowries, or paper, and however 
destitute it may be of any intrinsic value, it is yet possible, 
by sufficiently limiting its quantity, to raise its value in 
exchange to any conceivable extent.” 

Samuel Bailey (Sheffield) : “However some men doubt 
the advantage of an increase of the currency, no one can 
deny the ruinous effects of a decrease.” 

Sir James Stewart: “Money is nothing more than a 
scale of equal parts for the measurement of things 
vendible.” 

Sir James Graha?n (British statesman): “The value of 
money is in the inverse ratio to its quantity, supply of 
commodities remaining the same.” 

William E. Gladstone (1876, speaking of the banks 
issuing money): “ It will be exactly the same thing, so far 
as the money is concerned, to grant a legislative privilege 
to a person or to pay over to him a considerable sum from 
the consolidated fund.” 

London Economist (1883): “England being the chief 


37o 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


creditor nation of the world, it is to her interest to keep 
the volume of moneyas small as possible in countries from 
which debts are due, in order to get more of their product 
in payment of interest due to her citizens.” 

The Royal British Commission , appointed August, 1885, to 
inquire into the causes of the depression of business, made 
world-wide inquiries and was composed of twenty-three 
members, a number of whom were distinguished statesmen 
and economists. They agreed that gold had greatly appre- 
ciated in value and that the rise in the value of gold was 
caused by the demonetization of silver and the falling off 
in the supply of gold, and it was the leading cause of the 
general depression in trade and industry. But it was 
added : 

“This country [England] is largely a creditor country 
of debts payable in gold, and any change which entails a 
rise in the prices of commodities generally — that is to say, 
a demonetization of the purchasing power of gold — would 
be to our disadvantage.” 

Archbishop Walsh (Dublin, 1893): “ Of all conceivable 

systems of currency, that system is sure to be the worst 
which gives you a standard steadily, continually, indefinitely 
appreciating, and which, by that very fact, throws a burden 
upon every man of enterprise and benefits no human being 
whatever but the owner of fixed debts.” 

Count Leo Tolstoi (Russian philanthropist): “Only by 
means of money do some people command the labor of 
others nowadays ; that is, into slavedom. Money tribute 
has become a chief means of the subjugation of men, and 
by it are determined all the economic relations of man.” 

Cernuschi (French economist): “The purchasing power 
of money is in direct proportion to the volume of money 
existing.” 

Professor Chevalier (France), speaking of the increase of 
money, says i “ Such a change will benefit those who 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


371 


live by current labor and enterprise ; it will injure those 
who live upon the fruits of past labor. ... It has been 
wisely said that there is no machine which economizes 
labor like money, and its adoption has been likened to the 
discovery of letters.” 

Sauerbeck (German statistician) : “The propositions of 
some economists, that we have quite enough money in our 
country, or that there is sufficient gold to carry on the 
trade of the world, are valueless. They assume that there 
is a certain quantity required that need not be increased. 
Of course there is enough gold, and we could perhaps do 
with half the quantity. It only depends upon the state of 
prices.” 

Fichte (German philosopher) : “ The amount of money 

current in a state represents everything that is purchasable 
on the surface of the state. If the quantity of purchasable 
articles increases while the quantity of money remains the 
same, the value of the money increases in the same ratio. 
If the quantity of money increases while the quantity of 
purchasable articles remains the same, the value of money 
decreases in the same ratio.” 

Herr von Barr , speaking of the loss to German 
miners by the demonetization of silver, says: “This 
direct loss, important as it is, is nothing, however, com- 
pared with the indirect loss resulting from the tall of 
prices.” 

M. Edouard Cazalet , banker of Milan (“ Bimetallism,” 
page 14): “Since the value of all articles of commerce 
is represented by the currency, the value of these articles 
must fall in proportion to the reduction in the volume of 
the currency. Otherwise the moneyed currency could not 
possibly do the work which the two metals combined have 
previously performed.” 

Dr. Soetbeer (German statistician): “The value of 


372 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


money has fallen through the issue of paper money as 
well as through the increased production of gold and 
silver.” 

Leon Fouchet (1843): “If all the nations of Europe 
adopted the system of Great Britain the price of gold would 
be reduced beyond measure. The government could not 
decree that legal tender should be only gold, for that 
would be to decree a revolution, and the most dangerous 
of all, because it would be a revolution leading to unknown 
results.” 

M. Wolowski (French Institute, 1868): “The sup- 
pression of silver would bring on a veritable revolution. 
Gold would augment in value with rapid and constant 
progress, which would break the faith of contracts and 
aggravate the situation of all debtors. . . . If by a stroke 
of the pen they suppress one of these metals [gold or 
silver] in the monetary service, they double the demand 
for the other metal, to the ruin of all debtors.” 

John Locke (“ Considerations, etc., in Relation to Money,” 
1691) : “The greater scarcity of money enhances its price 
and increases the scramble, and makes an equal portion of 
it exchange for a greater of any other thing.” 1690: 
“Money is really a standing measure of the falling and 
rising value of other things. If you increase or lessen the 
quantity of money current, then the alteration of value is 
in the money. The value of money in any one country is 
the present quantity of the current money in that country 
in proportion to the present trade.” 

Adam Clark's commentary on II. Matthew: “The 
scarcity of money in England in 1351 influenced Parliament 
to pass an act fixing a day’s labor at id. Twenty-four 
eggs sold for id ; a pair of shoes 4 d; wheat 3 d\ a fat 
ox 80^.” 

Copernicus , the astronomer (treatise “ Monete Cudende 


FINANCIAL A UTH0RIT1ES . 


373 


Ratio,” addressed to the King of Poland) : “Numberless 
as are the evils by which kingdoms, principalities and 
republics are wont to decline, these four are, in my judg- 
ment, most baleful : civil strife, pestilence, sterility of the 
soil, and corruption of the coin. The first three are so 
manifest that no one fails to apprehend them; but the 
fourth, which concerns money, is considered by few, and 
those the most reflective, since it is not by a blow, but 
little by little, and through a secret and obscure approach, 
that it destroys the state.” 

Daniel Watney , of England: “I cannot suppose that 
everybody is wise. Must think of the folly of the United 
States, when they were a debtor nation, in adopting a gold 
standard. They knew nothing about currency matters ; 
they did not know it was going to increase their debt 
enormously.” 

Paulus (Roman jurist, third century): “Money circu- 
lates with a power which is derived, not from the substance, 
but from the quantity.” 

Blackstone (vol. I., page 2761): “As the quantity of 
precious metals increases they will sink in value and 
become less precious. If any accident were to diminish the 
quantity of gold and silver they would proportionately rise.” 

Faucet (“Handbook of Finance,” page 146): “The 
decline of prices since 1872 and 1873 is explained by the 
increased value of gold. The first effect was to cause a 
collapse of speculative securities, namely, bonds of rail- 
roads, etc.” 

Professor De Colange (“American Encyclopedia of Com- 
merce ”) : “The rate at which money exchanges for other 
things is determined by its quantity.” 

Beasey : “Slavery is the inevitable result of poverty. 
Poverty is the inevitable result of low wages. Low wages 
are the inevitable result of a scarcity of currency.” 


374 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


A. H. Gaston: “Money is simply a measure of value, 
and as a nation contracts its circulation it contracts the 
value of all property in like proportion.” 

Colton's Public Econo 7 ny (page 224): “We hold that money 
enough for the demands of trade is the tool of trade to a 
nation.” Page 193 : “ It is very desirable that there should 
not be sudden and great fluctuations, as such changes affect 
the value of incomes. For example, when the products 
of the American mines had raised the general prices on 
comforts of life as 4 to 1.” 

Silver Commission Report of 1876, page 49 : “Whenever 
it becomes apparent that prices are rising and money 
falling in value in consequence of an increase in its volume, 
the greatest activity takes place in exchange and produc- 
tive enterprises. Every one becomes anxious to share in 
the advantages of a rising market, and the inducement to 
hoard gold is taken away; its circulation becomes ex- 
ceedingly active ; labor comes into great demand and at 
remunerative wages. It not only increases production, but 
increases consumption.” Page 50 : “Falling prices and 
misery and destitution are inseparable companions. It is 
universally conceded that falling prices result from the 
contraction of the money volume.” Page 50 : “Money 
is the great instrument of association, the very fiber of 
social organism, the vitalizing force of industry, the pure, 
true organ of civilization, and as essential to existence as 
oxygen is to animal life. Without money civilization 
could not have had a beginning.” Page 51: “It is 
estimated that the purchasing power of the precious metals 
increased between 1809 and 1840 fully 145 per cent. . . . 
They had come to regard money as an institution fixed 
and immovable in value, and when the price of property 
and wages fell they charged the fault not to the money, 
but to the property and the employer. Their prejudices 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


375 


were aroused against labor-saving machinery ; they were 
angered against capital.” Page 53 (effects of a decreas- 
ing volume of money) : “ It circulates freely in the stock 

exchange, but avoids the labor exchange. It has in all 
cases been the worst enemy with which society has had 
to contend.” Page 56: “However great the natural 
resources of a country, fertile its soil, intelligent, enter- 
prising and industrious its inhabitants — if the volume of 
money is shrinking and prices falling, its merchants will 
be overwhelmed with bankruptcy, industries paralyzed, 
and destitution and distrust will prevail.” Page 59: “All 
respectable authorities agree as to the relative effects of 
an increasing and decreasing money. . . . History records 
no such disastrous transition as that from the Roman 
empire to the dark ages. In the Christian era the metallic 
money of the Roman empire amounted to $1,800,000,000. 
By the end of the fifteenth century it had shrunk to less 
than $200,000,000. Population dwindled, and commerce, 
arts, wealth and freedom all disappeared.” 

Henry C. Carey , LL. D. (“Social Science,” page 297): 
“Money tends to diminish the obstacles interposed 
between the producer and the consumer precisely as do 
railroads and mills. . . . The most necessary part of the 
machinery of exchange being that which facilitates the 
passage of labor and its products from hand to hand, any 
diminution of its quantity is felt with tenfold more severity 
than is the diminution of the quantity of railroad cars 
or steamboats.” 

Before the Congressional committee : “We next find him 
[Secretary McCulloch] issuing the destructive Fort Wayne 
decree, by means of which we were made to know that the 
currency was in excess and prices too high ; that the policy 
of the treasury was to be one of contraction; and that 
unfortunate debtors must as speedily as possible place 


376 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


themselves in a position to meet the shock to be thus 
created. In other words, all debtors were required to sell, 
capitalists meanwhile being advised not to buy, the govern- 
ment being determined that labor, lands, houses, stocks 
and property of all other descriptions should be promptly 
reduced to gold values.” 

Treatise on “ Wealth”: “A period of contracted currency 
is one of embarrassment, difficulty, and generally, in the 
end, of insolvency to the small farmer and moderate land- 
holder. ... It will rise in price from that scarcity, and 
become accessible only to the more rich and affluent 
classes.” 

[This greatest of American political economists, the late 
Henry C. Carey, estimated the cost of contraction in order 
to secure resumption between the years of 1873 and 1879 
at thirty billion dollars.] 

Henry Carey Baird (March 13, 1882): “The man who 
has the greatest horror of the inflation of the currency 
generally has no horror of the inflation of bank credits. 
He likes it because it increases his power over his fellow 
men. What he objects to is the inflation of the people 
which causes an increase of their power.” 

September 3, 1889: “People know that the expansion 
of the currency means life, and equally well that contrac- 
tion means death.” 

Henry Carey Baird (“ Money and Bank Credit,” page 14) : 
“The first and greatest need of a man is that of associa- 
tion and combination with his fellow men, and the daily 
life of a civilized people involves such countless myriads 
of acts of association or commerce that a medium having 
the quality of universal acceptability is absolutely neces- 
sary to that life. That medium is money. ... In its 
absence in sufficient volume in Great Britain and Ireland, 
thousands of millions of dollars of labor power annually 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES . 


377 


in those islands perish. While the Trenholms, the Rus- 
sell Sages, the Pearsalls, the Fahnenstocks and the Selig- 
mans wrangle over the efforts of the people to secure a 
sufficient supply of ‘current money,’ more labor power 
will go to waste than will represent the value of the 
capital of all the banks in the city of New York many 
times over.” 

Peter Cooper : “Contraction in finance is not the same 
as economy in private life. Contraction in the finances of 
a country means a stoppage of a certain amount of the 
industry and exchanges, by reason of the contraction of the 
credit by which these are sustained. Nothing can be more 
certain than that a contraction of the currency by our gov- 
ernment has been followed by a reduction of all values, so 
that a wrong has been inflicted upon all the enterprising 
business men of this nation, whose property has been 
virtually confiscated by this process of contraction.” 

B. F. Butler (August, 1875) : “I am informed that Mr. 
Duncan, of Duncan, Sherman & Co., went to Washington 
when the currency bill was before the President to advise 
him to veto it because it was necessary to depreciate 
values. The President did veto the bills. Values have 
been depreciated, I trust, to an amount entirely satisfactory 
to Messrs. Duncan, Sherman & Co.” [The firm of which 
John Sherman was a member was bankrupted by the 
depreciation.] 

Solon Chase : “I bought a yoke of steers a year ago for 
$60 ; fed them all summer and winter, and in the spring 
was offered but $60 for them in the market. Who got the 
hay? So long as the owners of funded wealth control the 
volume of money they control the price of a day’s work 
down east and the price of a bale of cotton down south. 
The higher the price of hogs and corn, the easier the 
people can pay the debt. The farmer cannot pay off his 


37 « 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


debt on a falling market. The fight of the men who deal 
in money is not for the metal, but to control the volume.” 

James D. Holden (President National Citizens’ Alliance) : 
“So magical is the operation of this wonderful device 
known as money that by simply restricting its issue 
wealth is transferred from the hands that created it to the 
possession of those not in the remotest degree responsible 
for its production. Let the reader who does not indorse 
this view give himself, if possible, a reason why a people 
who by their laws create the supply of money should 
limit the issue.” 

A Georgia editor (speaking of the effects of contraction) 
says: “In 1868 there was about $40 per capita of money 
in circulation ; cotton was about 30 cents a pound. The 
farmer then put a 500-pound bale of cotton on his wagon, 
took it to town and sold it. Then he paid $40 taxes, 
bought a cooking stove for $30, a suit of clothes for $15, 
his wife a dress for $5, 100 pounds of meat for $18, one 
barrel of flour for $12, and went home with $30 in his 
pocket. In 1887 there was about $5 per capita of money 
in circulation ; this same farmer put a 500-pound bale of 
cotton on his wagon, went to town and sold it, paid $40 
taxes, got discouraged, went to the saloon, spent his 
remaining $2.30 and went home dead broke and drunk.” 

Arthur Kitson (“Scientific Solution of the Money Ques- 
tion,” 1894, page 284): “A restricted currency means 
restricted commerce ; restricted commerce means restricted 
production, and restricted production means poverty, 
misery, disease and death.” Page 396: “The gold 
standard is a device of the bankers for the measuring of 
everybody else’s corn with their bushel.” 

Sealy (“Coins and Currency,” 1853): “The commerce 
of the country is now in the power of the Bank of England 
as it was before in the legislature.” 


FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES. 


379 


Doubleday (“Financial History of England”): “We 
have already seen the fall of prices produced by this 
universal narrowing of the paper circulation. Distress, 
ruin and bankruptcy which took place were universally 
among the landholders whose estates were burdened by 
mortgages. The effects were most marked. Owners were 
stripped of all and made beggars.” 

President Andrews (Eaton University): “Demonetiza- 
tion of silver was the hardest, saddest blow to human 
welfare ever delivered by the action of states. So long as 
gold is the sole standard of that money, so long these 
wrongs and sufferings must continue.” 

Janies Mill (father of John Stuart Mill) : “In whatever 
degree the quantity of money is increased or diminished, 
other things remaining the same, in that proportion the 
value of the whole and every part is reciprocally diminished 
or increased.” 

Herbert Spencer : “Barbarians do not want any money 
but hard money ; semi-civilized people want hard money 
and convertible paper ; but when the world becomes 
civilized and enlightened no other kind of money will be 
used but paper money.” 




VI. 


INTEREST AND USURY. 

“ It is against nature for money to breed money.” — Bacon. 

T HE great Napoleon said, after studying a set of com- 
pound interest tables: “ There is one thing to my 
mind more wonderful than all the rest, and that is, 
that the deadly fact buried in these tables has not before 
this devoured the whole world.” The ethical sense of 
mankind saw at an early day the wrong of usury. The 
Mosaic law was very explicit on the subject. Cicero men- 
tions that Cato, being asked what he thought of usury, 
made no other answer to the question than by asking the 
person who spoke to him what he thought of murder. 
The Christian Church, in its early days and until the end 
of the Middle Ages, utterly forbade the exaction of interest. 
In the reign of Edward VI. a prohibitory act was passed, 
for the stated reason that the charging of interest was “a 
vice most odious and detestable and contrary to the word 
of . God.” It was not until the time of the Reformation 
that this interpretation of the divine law was ever ques- 
tioned. Calvin was one of the first to contend that the 
sentiment against exacting interest arose from a mistaken 
view of the Mosaic law. A series of enactments, known 
as the Usury Laws, restricted the maximum rate to be 
charged in England. By Act 21 James I. this rate was 
fixed at 8 per cent. During the Commonwealth this rate 
was reduced to 6 per cent., and by Act 12 Anne to 5 per 
cent., at which rate it stood until 1839. In the United 
States the legal rate of interest varies, nearly all the 

380 


INTEREST AND USURY. 


381 

States having passed statutes fixing a maximum rate. 

“ Usury bringeth the treasures of a realm or state into 
a few hands ; for the usurer being at certainties, and 
others at uncertainties, at the end of the game most of the 
money will be in the box; and ever a state flourisheth 
when wealth is more equally spread.” 

This quotation is from the essay “Of Usury,” by that 
wisest of philosophers, Francis Bacon. The reader must 
bear in mind that while nowadays the term “usury” is 
applied generally only to excessive interest, in Bacon’s 
time the word was used for an)" rate of premium or inter- 
est for the use of money. The word usance , now obsolete 
in that sense, conveyed the same meaning, and is used 
in Shakespeare’s “ Merchant of Venice.” The provocation 
which Antonio first gave Shylock was that — 

“ He lends out money gratis and brings down 
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.” 

All are familiar with the conditions which Shylock 
exacted of Antonio : 

Shylock. This kindness will I show. 

Go with me to a notary, seal me there 
Your single bond ; and, in a merry sport, 

If you repay me not on such a day, 

In such a place, such sum or sums as are 
Express’d in the condition, let the forfeit 
Be nominated for an equal pound 
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken 
In what part of your body pleaseth me. 

Antonio. Content i’ faith : I’ll seal to such a bond 
And say there is much kindness in the Jew. 

Bassanio. You shall not seal to such a bond for me : 

I’ll rather dwell in my necessity. 

Antonio. Why, fear not, man ; I will not forfeit it; 
Within these two months, that’s a month before 
This bond expires, I do expect return 


382 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


Of thrice three times the value of this bond. . . . 

Come on ; in this there can be no dismay ; 

My ships come home a month before the day. 

But Antonio’s ships did not come in — just as the farmer’s 
crop often fails and the artisan’s employment gives out 
just when the mortgage is due — and Shylock claimed his 
pound of flesh. “The Merchant of Venice” is a comedy, 
and Shylock, Bassanio and Antonio are mere creatures of 
imagination ; but there are thousands of tragedies enacted 
every day in real life in which real Shylocks play a part. 
The Shylocks of to-day are quite unlike the Shylocks of 
fiction, however. Banker Morgan, who negotiated with 
Grover Cleveland the star-chamber bond deal by which 
the American government sold to the Rothschilds at a 
premium of only 4 y 2 per cent. $100,000,000 of interest- 
bearing gold bonds which were immediately after quoted 
at a premium of 21 per cent., is a philanthropist. As soon 
as possible after the deal was made his portrait appeared 
in many of the great dailies with a fulsome account of his 
many charities! It will take many a pound of human 
flesh, many a drop of life’s blood, to pay the interest on 
the bonds which he negotiated, and out of the sale of 
which he made a cool million in one day. 

The Bible has much to say on the subject of usury. The 
writer has never heard a sermon preached on any of the 
following texts, however — perhaps because bankers and 
money-lenders rent the best pews. Remember that usury 
here means simply interest — not excessive interest : 

Exodus 22:25: “If thou lend money to any of my 
people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an 
usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.” 

Deuteronomy 23:19-20: “Thou shalt not lend upon 
usury to thy brother ; usury of money, usury of victuals, 
usury of anything that is lent upon usury. Unto a stranger 


INTEREST AND USURY. 


383 

thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou 
shalt not lend upon usury, that the Lord thy God may 
bless thee.” 

Nehemiah 5:7: “Then I consulted with myself, and I 
rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them : 
Ye exact usury every one of his brother. And I set a 
great assembly against them.” 

Psalms 15:5 (David describes a citizen of Zion) : “He 
that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward 
against the innocent.” 

A Chapter from “Caesar’s Column.” 

I cannot do better here than quote a significant chapter 
from Ignatius Donnelly’s powerful novel, “Caesar’s 
Column,” which certainly did as much as any book ever 
printed to set people thinking : 

“ But what would you do, my good Gabriel,” said Maxi- 
milian, smiling, “if the reformation of the world were 
placed in your hands? Every man has a Utopia in his 
head. Give me some idea of yours.” 

“First,” I said, “I should do away with all interest on 
money. Interest on money is the root and ground of the 
world’s troubles. It puts one man in a position of safety, 
while another is in a condition of insecurity, and thereby 
it at once creates a radical distinction in human society.” 

“ How do you make that out?” he asked. 

“The lender takes a mortgage on the borrower’s land, 
or house, or goods, for, we will say, one-half or one-third 
their value ; the borrower then assumes all the chances of 
life to repay the loan. If he is a farmer, he has to run the 
risk of the fickle elements. Rains may drown, droughts 
may burn up his crops. If a merchant, he encounters all 
the hazards of trade : the bankruptcy of other tradesmen ; 
the hostility of the elements sweeping away agriculture, 
and so affecting commerce ; the tempests that smite his 
ships, etc. If a mechanic, he is still more dependent upon 
the success of all above him and the mutations of com- 
mercial prosperity. He may lose employment ; he may 
sicken ; he may die. But behind all these risks stands the 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS. 


384 

money-lender, in perfect security. The failure of his cus- 
tomers only enriches him ; for he takes for his loan property 
worth twice or thrice the sum he has advanced upon it. 
Given a million of men and a hundred years of time, and 
the slightest advantage possessed by any one class among 
the million must result, in the long run, in the most start- 
ling discrepancies of condition. A little evil grows like a 
ferment — it never ceases to operate ; it is always at work. 
Suppose I bring before you a handsome, rosy-cheeked 
young man, full of life and hope and health. I touch his 
lip with a single bacillus oi phthisis pulmonalis — consumption. 
It is invisible to the eye ; it is too small to be weighed. 
Judged by all the tests of the senses, it is too insignificant 
to be thought of; but it has the capacity to multiply itself 
indefinitely. The youth goes off singing. Months, per- 
haps years, pass before the deadly disorder begins to 
manifest itself, but in time the step loses its elasticity; 
the eyes become dull ; the roses fade from the cheeks ; the 
strength departs, and eventually the joyous youth is but a 
shell — a cadaverous, shrunken form, inclosing a shocking 
mass of putridity; and death ends the dreadful scene. 
Give one set of men in a community a financial advantage 
over the rest, however slight — it rhay be almost invisible — 
and at the end of centuries that class so favored will own 
everything and wreck the country. A penny, they say, 
put out at interest the day Columbus sailed from Spain, 
and compounded ever since, would amount now [A. D. 
I 99°] t° more than all the assessed value of all the prop- 
erty, real, personal and mixed, on the two continents of 
North and South America.” 

“But,” said Maximilian, “how would the men get along 
who wanted to borrow?” 

“The necessity to borrow is one of the results of borrow- 
ing. The disease produces the symptoms. The men who 
are enriched by borrowing are infinitely less in number 
than those who are ruined by it ; and every disaster to the 
middle class swells the number and decreases the oppor- 
tunities of the helpless poor. Money in itself is valueless. 
It becomes valuable only by use — by exchange for things 
needful for life or comfort. If money could not be loaned 
it would have to be put out by the owner of it in business 


INTEREST AND USURY. 


385 


enterprises, which would employ labor ; and as the enter- 
prise would not then have to support a double burden — to- 
wit, the man engaged in it and the usurer who sits securely 
upon his back — but would have to support only the former 
usurer, that is, the present employer — its success would be 
more certain ; the general prosperity of the community 
would be increased thereby, and there would be, there- 
fore, more enterprises, more demand for labor, and conse- 
quently higher wages. Usury kills off the enterprising 
members of a community by bankrupting them, and leaves 
only the very rich and the very poor ; but every dollar the 
employers of labor pay to the lenders of money has to 
come eventually out of the pockets of the laborers. 
Usury is therefore the cause of the first aristocracy 5 and 
out of this grow all the other aristocracies. Inquire where 
the money came from that now oppresses mankind, in the 
shape of great corporations, combinations, etc., and in 
nine cases out of ten you will trace it back to the fountain of 
interest on money loaned. The coral island is built up of 
the bodies of dead coral insects ; large fortunes are usually 
the accumulations of wreckage, and every dollar repre- 
sents disaster.” 

How Wealth Accumulates. 

As proof of the fact that it is a mighty fortunate thing for 
humanity that the Rothschilds did not conduct a bank in 
the year 1 A. D., I reprint from the Twentieth Century the 
following article by H. C. Whitaker, which shows the 
beauties of interest-drawing : 

“Had one cent been loaned on the 14th day of March, 
A. D. 1, interest being allowed at the rate of 6 per cent., 
compounded yearly, then, 1894 years later — that is, on 
March 14, 1895 — the amount due would be $8,497,840,- 
000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 ( 8, - 
497,840,000 decillions). If it were desired to pay this in 
gold, 23.2 grains to the dollar, then, taking spheres of 
pure gold, each the size of the earth, it would take 610,- 
070,000,000,000,000 of them to pay for that cent. Placing 
these spheres in a straight row, their combined length 
would be 4,826,870,000,000,000,000,000 miles, a distance 


3 86 


PRESENT DA Y PROBLEMS . 


which it would take light (going at the rate of 186,330 
miles per second) 820,890,000 years to travel. 

“The planets and stars of the entire solar and stellar 
universe, as seen by the great Lick telescope, if they were 
all of solid gold, would not nearly pay the amount. A 
single sphere to pay the whole amount, if placed with its 
center at the sun, would have its surface extending 563,- 
580,000 miles beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune, the 
farthest in our system. 

“It may be added that if the earth had contained a 
population of ten billions, each one making a million 
dollars a second, then to pay for that cent it would have 
required their combined earnings for 26,938,500,000,000,- 
000,000,000 years.” 



VII. 


DEBT AND SLAVERY. 

“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty 
throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” — Levit- 
icus 25:10. 

“Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the 
mightiest to undermine government and corrupt the people.” — 
Wendell Phillips. 

F ROM the earliest dawn of history debt has ever borne 
a close relationship to slavery and servitude. “It 
is worthy of remark,” says Grote (History of Greece, 
vol. III., p. 144), “that the first borrowers must have been 
for the most part driven to this necessity by the press- 
ure of want, contracting debt as a desperate resource 
without any fair prospect of ability to pay. Debt and 
famine run together in the mind of the poet Hesiod. The 
borrower is in this unhappy state rather a distressed man 
soliciting aid than a solvent man capable of making and 
fulfilling a contract; and if he cannot find a friend to make 
a free gift to him in the former character he would not 
under the latter character obtain a loan from a stranger 
except by the promise of exorbitant interest and by the 
fullest eventual power over his person which he is in a 
position to grant.” 

“This remark,” says Professor Nicholson in the En- 
cyclopedia Britannica, “suggested by the state of society 
in ancient Greece, is largely applicable throughout the 
world until the close of the early Middle Ages.” The 
conditions of ancient usury find a graphic illustration in 
the account of the building of the second temple at 

387 


388 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


Jerusalem (Nehemiah 5:1-12). Some said: ‘‘We have 
mortgaged our lands, vineyards and houses that we might 
buy corn, because of the dearth.” Others said: “We 
have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon 
our lands and vineyards, . . . and lo, we bring into bond- 
age our sons and our daughters to be servants, . . . neither 
is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our 
lands and vineyards.” 

In ancient Greece we find a law of bankruptcy resting 
on slavery. In Athens, about the time of Solon’s legisla- 
tion (594 B. C.), the bulk of the population who had 
originally been small proprietors became gradually 
indebted to the rich to such an extent that they were 
practically slaves ; those who nominally owned their prop- 
erty owed more than they could pay, and stone pillars 
erected on their land showed the amount of the debts and 
the names of the lenders. Solon’s remedy for this state 
of affairs was to cancel all debts made on the security of 
the land or the person of the debtor, and at the same time 
he enacted that henceforth no loans could be made on the 
bodily security of the debtor, and the creditor was confined 
to a share of the property. 

In Rome’s early history practically the same conditions 
prevailed as in Greece. About 500 B. C. an attempt was 
made to remedy the evil by providing a maximum rate of 
interest, no alteration being made, however, in the law of 
debt. In the course of a few centuries the free farmers 
were utterly destroyed. The pressure of war and taxes 
and usury drove all into debt and into practical, if not 
technical, slavery. The old law of debt was not really 
abolished until the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, who then 
practically adopted Solon’s legislation of more than five 
centuries before, but too late to save the middle class. 

In the course of centuries and the evolution of civiliza- 


DEBT 4 ND SLAVERY. 


389 


tion chattel slavery has been abolished; but the slavery of 
debt still remains, and usury is now, as it was in all the 
history of mankind, the tool with which debt forges the 
chains of nations. It is not the province of this work to 
examine into the conditions of other countries than our 
own, but the facts now to be presented will convince the 
thoughtful reader that the American people are bound by 
chains of debt which it will require the wisest statesman- 
ship to break. 

Representative Warner of Massachusetts (Republican), 
in a speech delivered in Congress in 1894, stated that the 
interest-bearing debts of the United States, public and 
private, aggregated a grand total of $32,000,000,000 (thirty- 
two billions of dollars). This would be bad enough, but 
careful estimates by conservative students of political 
economy show that the amount is very much larger. 

W. H. Harvey, author of “Coin’s Financial School,” 
makes the following itemized estimate of the interest- 
bearing debts of this country, public and private. 
Most of the figures are derived from recognized official 
sources : 


The national debt, according to the official 

census of 1890, was $ 891,960,104 

State and municipal debts (census 1890). 1,135,210,442 

Railroad bonds, 1892 (“Poor’s Manual,” 

1893) 5,463,611,204 

Debt on farms and homes occupied by 
owner (R. R. Porter, Supt. Eleventh 
Census, in North American Review, 

vol. 153, p. 618). 2,500,000,000 

Mortgaged indebtedness of business realty, 
street railways, manufactories and 
business enterprises (estimated from 

partial reports of nth census) 5,000,000,000 

Loans from 3,773 national banks (Statisti- 
cal Abstract of the United States).. 2,153,769,806 


39 ° 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS . 


Loans from 5,579 State savings, stock and 
private banks and trust companies 
(Statistical Abstract of the United 

States).... 2,201,764,292 

These are figures on which something 
definite has been obtained ; also the 
ratio of increase from 1880 to 1890, 
which was from $6,750,000,000 in 1880 
to $19,000,000,000 in 1890. By com- 
puting the same ratio of increase we 


should now add 8,000,000,000 

Mortgage debts on homes not occupied by 

owner (estimated) 1,000,000,000 

Overdue accounts due merchants, whole- 
sale and retail, drawing from 6 to 10 

per cent, interest (estimated) 5,000,000,000 

Debts due pawnbrokers, drawing from 60 
to 120 per cent, per annum or 5 to 10 
per cent, a month (estimated) 1,000,000,000 


Private debts due from individuals to indi- 
viduals and of which there is no pub- 
lic record or other data for census 


officers to obtain information (esti- 
mated) 1,000,000,000 

Maritime debts (estimated) 1,000,000,000 

Overdrafts, judgments, overdue taxes and 
miscellaneous items not included in 
the foregoing (estimated) 4,000,000,000 


Horrible total $40,346,315,848 


In commenting on his figures, Mr. Harvey says : “ Debts, 
a non-producing industry, growing to such a magnitude 
that the profits derived from all the producing industries of 
the country will not more than pay the interest on these 
debts, make the producers thereafter work for the benefit 
of the money-lending or non-producing class. When such 
a condition as to debts arises as we now have, all money 
nearly gravitates into the hands of the money-lenders and 
piles up in the money centers. The effect of debts upon 


DEBT AND SLA FEE V. 


391 


civilization has never been understood generally. A pros- 
perous country can carry about a certain proportion of 
debt among its people without apparent injury, but when 
it reaches the present proportion — a proportion only 
reached three times before in the known history of the 
world — it produces commercial paralysis and the financial 
enslavement of the people. All the people make goes to 
pay the money-lenders their interest. 

“When you pay money to a merchant or a manufacturer 
that you may owe, the money you pay him is paid by him 
to others for material and other products of his business, 
with no charge or embargo upon it ; but when you pay 
back to a money-lender a debt you owe him, the money 
stops there until it is loaned out again to come back with 
interest. When this grows to such an extent as to require 
all or most of the money in the country to pay the interest 
on debts, then commerce slackens and there is little or no 
money among the people except as loaned out by the banks 
and others whose business it is to loan money. They are 
dealing in the blood of commerce, and when they take it 
from the arteries of commerce there is commercial sickness 
and distress.” 

The Abstract of the Eleventh Census (page 189) gives 
the true valuation of all real and personal property in the 
United States as only $65,037,091,198. Against this we 
have an interest-bearing debt of forty billions. 

But Mr. Harvey’s figures are by no means complete. He 
says nothing about the capital stock of the great railroad, 
telegraph, telephone, insurance and other corporations, 
most of which is “water.” The reader may say that this 
is not debt. But it is debt, as it represents what the com- 
panies owe to their stockholders; it draws interest; it 
must pay salaries and dividends. To say that we pay 
interest every year on forty-five billions is a very conserva- 


392 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


tive statement. And the debt is constantly increasing, for 
the reason that there is not in circulation, of all kinds of 
money, enough to pay this interest. Let us figure it out. 
The average rate of interest is 6^ per cent. Let us say 6 
per cent. At this rate we pay each year $2,700,000,000 — 
over $40 per capita. Think of it! Forty dollars interest 
for every man, woman and child ! Two hundred dollars 
for every family ! And this exclusive of taxation, which 
adds still more to the burdens of life. The most blatant 
gold-bug does not claim that there is $40 of money per 
capita in circulation. There can be only one result, and 
that result is abject, hopeless slavery — slavery under the 
guise of freedom, but still slavery — unless this burden of 
debt is thrown off before the patient people succumb 
entirely. 


VIII. 

THE LAWS OF PROPERTY. 

By Lyman Trumbull. 

“Property, or the dominion of man over external objects, has 
its origin from the Creator, as his gift to mankind.” — Black- 
stone (Dunlap’s Manual of the General Principles of Law). 

I T is chiefly the laws of property which have enabled 
the few to accumulate vast wealth while the masses 
live in poverty. For many generations our laws have 
been framed with a view to the claims of property rather 
than the rights of man. For ages the money power has 
controlled legislation the world over, and, I am sorry to 
say, has exercised a controlling influence in our own land 
for many years. In the language of the Declaration of 
Independence: ‘ 4 All men are created equal and endowed 
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness.” If a man has an inalienable right to life, then he 
has a right to the means which sustain life, and of which 
he cannot be justly deprived by laws which permit one 
man, or set of men, to so absorb the means of life as not 
to leave sufficient to sustain the lives of all. If man has 
an inalienable right to liberty, then he cannot be justly^ 
deprived of liberty by another who assumes the right at his 
mere discretion to abridge it. If man has an inalienable 
right to the pursuit of happiness, then he cannot be justly 
deprived of that right by laws interposed in the way of its 
pursuit. 

Do such laws exist, and if so, how came they into 
existence? 


393 


394 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


In Great Britain, whence we have derived most of our 
laws of property, the policy is to build up great estates. 
Hence, by the laws of that country, land descends to the 
eldest son, to the exclusion of the other children. The 
effect of this is to limit the ownership of land to a few 
persons. Thirty-four persons in that country own six 
million two hundred and eleven thousand acres of land. 
The Duke of Sutherland is said to own one million three 
hundred and fifty-eight thousand acres, and a few other 
dukes and earls own a great proportion of the land of the 
United Kingdom. What has brought about this wide 
difference in the ownership of land? Certainly the few 
who own the millions of acres, from which they derive 
revenue, in some instances of more than five hundred 
thousand dollars annually, in rentals, have not earned 
these vast estates by their own industry, but, on the con- 
trary, it is by force of statutory enactments that these vast 
estates have been accumulated and perpetuated in few 
hands. 

In this country we have abolished the law of primogeni- 
ture, by which the eldest son inherited the landed estate 
of his ancestor, but here vast estates are being rapidly 
accumulated in few hands, and this is especially true 
during and since the War of the Rebellion. In i860 there 
were few millionaires and few large fortunes in this coun- 
try, but since then a rich class has sprung up, so that in 
1890, according to reliable statistics, ten per cent, of the 
people own as much wealth as the other ninety per cent. 
In 1890 there were 12,690,182 families in the United 
States, and according to George K. Holmes, in the 
Political Science Quarterly , 4,047 of these possessed about 
seven-tenths as much as do 11,593,887 families. Just 
think of it. One family possessing the wealth of 2,000 
families the country over! In the city of New York alone 


THE LAWS OF PROPERTY. 


395 


there are said to be five men whose aggregate wealth 
exceeds $500,000,000. How many hundred millions are 
held by various wealthy corporations, coal and oil syn- 
dicates and other trusts, I am unable to state. In the cities 
of New York and Chicago hundreds of thousands of 
men and women, willing to work, were out of employment 
last winter, many of whom must have perished from want 
but for charity’s aid. These conditions another winter 
promise to be no better. 

The richest corporations and persons on earth are prob- 
ably in the United States. How have they accumulated 
their vast fortunes? Surely not by their own industry and 
thrift, but by the aid of statutes regulating the rights of 
property, generally statutes providing for the transmission 
of property by descent or by will, or the creation of 
monopolies. 

It is only by virtue of statutory law that man is per- 
mitted to make disposition of his property by will, and it 
is only by virtue of statutory law that one person is per- 
mitted to inherit property from another, and it is by virtue 
of statute law that great corporate monopolies have been 
built up. 

No man has a natural right to dispose of property after 
death, nor has one person a natural right to inherit prop- 
erty from another. As Blackstone says: “There is no 
foundation in nature or in natural law why the son should 
have the right to exclude his fellow creatures from a 
determinate spot of land because his father did so before 
him, or why the occupier of a particular field or of a jewel, 
when lying on his death-bed, and no longer able to main- 
tain possession, should be able to tell the rest of the world 
which of them should enjoy it after him.” 

Under Illinois laws, the owner of real estate is permitted 
to lease it for an indefinite period, and compel future 


396 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


generations who occupy the premises to pay rent to unborn 
generations. Leases for ninety-nine years are quite com- 
mon in Chicago. It is by no divine law that the occupant 
of land to-day is allowed to compel its occupant one 
hundred years hence to pay tribute for its use. The stat- 
utes of Illinois have given to the owner of property the 
right to dispose of it by will, not wholly, but to a certain 
extent. If married, neither the husband nor wife can give 
away the homestead or dower rights of the other, nor can 
creditors, heirs or devisees take from the widow her 
allowance. 

The money power has governed legislation in all civilized 
countries for generations. It matters not what party is in 
power in the national or State governments of our own 
country, the money power has exercised a controlling influ- 
ence in many instances in the shaping and administration 
of our laws. 

If the accumulation of vast fortunes goes on another 
generation with the same accelerated rapidity as during the 
present, the wealth of this country will soon be consoli- 
dated in the hands of a few corporations and individuals 
to as great an extent as the landed interests of Great Britain 
now are. 

What is the remedy for this state of things, which, if 
permitted to continue, will make the masses of the people 
dependent upon the generosity of the few for the means to 
live? So far as concerns corporations of a public or quasi- 
public character — and none others should exist — the rem- 
edy is simple. They are completely' under the control of 
the legislatures, whence they derive all their powers. 

It is entirely competent for a legislature to provide the 
manner iu which the business of a corporation shall be 
conducted. It may provide that the directors shall consist 
of few or many persons, that a portion of them shall be taken 


THE LAWS OF PROPERTY. 


397 


from the employes of the corporation, selected by them, 
another part from the stockholders who furnish the capital 
for carrying on its business. It may provide that the 
employes shall first be paid from the revenues of the com- 
pany a certain fixed sum, graduated according to the char- 
ater of the work performed by each ; that a fair rate of 
interest shall then be paid upon the capital invested, and 
the balance be distributed upon some equitable principle 
between the employes and the stockholders. In case of 
loss the stockholders would have to suffer, since the 
employe, having a right to live, must in all cases receive 
his daily wages when dependent upon them for subsistence. 
This principle receives judicial sanction from United States 
Circuit Judge Caldwell, in his order entered in case 
of the Santa Fe Railroad, as follows: 

“Ordered that the men employed by the receivers in the 
operation of the road and the conduct of its business shall 
be paid their monthly wages not later than the 15th of the 
month following their accrual. If the earnings of the road 
are not sufficient to pay the wages of the men as herein 
directed, the receivers are hereby authorized and required 
to borrow from time to time, as occasion may require, a 
sufficient sum of money for that purpose. The obligations 
of the receivers for money borrowed for this purpose 
specified in this order shall constitute a lien on the prop- 
erty of the trust prior and superior to all other liens 
thereon.” 

Under the powers inherent in every sovereignty, govern- 
ment may regulate the conduct of its citizens toward each 
other, and, when nececsary for the public good, the man- 
ner in which each shall use his own property. 

Formerly, corporations having special privileges were 
created by special acts, which the courts construed to be 
contracts between the granting power and the corporators 
which, once granted, could not be repealed or varied by the 
granting power. This granting of charters to favored indi- 


398 


PRESENT DAY PROP LEMS. 


viduals, conferring upon them privileges not possessed by 
the general public, became obnoxious to public sentiment, 
and, as a consequence, general laws have been passed in 
this and many other States, under which any three persons 
may become incorporated for any private purpose. This 
has become a worse evil tlian the old system of granting 
special charters. Under the general law enacted in this 
State twenty years ago. I am informed, 27,200 corporations 
have been created. 

Irresponsible persons are often induced, for a small con- 
sideration, to form corporations with a proposed capital of 
millions ; to subscribe for the whole stock except a share 
or two, and, for a fancied, imaginary or worthless consid- 
eration, to issue to themselves fully paid up stock, which is 
subsequently transferred to the real parties in interest, who 
expect thereby to escape personal liability if the concern is 
a failure, and to pocket the profits if a success. Business 
of all sorts is now to a great extent carried on in the name 
of corporations, in order that the proprietors may escape 
personal responsibility. How can the individual, who is 
personally responsible for his contracts, successfully com- 
pete with a corporation run by persons who incur no such 
responsibility? Doing business in a corporate name not 
only paralyzes individual effort, but leads to a concentra- 
tion of capital — the great evil of our time. The remedy 
for this growing state of things would be to restrict the 
formation of corporations to such as are formed for public 
purposes, or such as the public have an interest in. 
Seventy-eight per cent, of the great fortunes of the United 
States are said to be derived from permanent monopoly 
privileges which ought never to have been granted. 

As before stated, the power to dispose of property after 
death by will is conferred by statute, under certain limita- 
tions. Why should this privilege be given to dispose of 


THE LAWS OF PROPERTY. 


399 


more than a fixed amount of propert) r to any one 
individual? Say property to the value of not over five 
hundred thousand dollars to the wife, of not more than 
one hundred thousand dollars to each child, and of not 
more than fifty thousand dollars to any other relative, 
extending to the third or fourth degree, and that the 
balance of the estate should escheat to the State, to be 
used by it for the support of schools, charitable institu- 
tions, the employment of laborers in making roads, and 
other good purposes. 

The law now provides for the escheat of estates of per- 
sons dying without heirs. The same limitation might be 
put upon inheritances where there is no will, and in this 
way the accumulation of vast estates by inheritance or 
devise would be checked, and property, especially landed 
estates, which by nature belong to all, would be more 
equally distributed. It should not be forgotten that the 
method of transmitting property from the dead to the 
living is entirely derived from the state. If public policy 
requires that the state should give to the dying possessor, 
no longer able to control or take with him his possessions, 
the privilege of disposing of so much as may be conducive 
to the comfort and happiness of his surviving kindred, 
does it require that this privilege should be extended to 
his disposition of millions to the injury of the rest of 
mankind? 

If it be said that to limit the privilege of disposing of 
exceeding a million dollars of property by devise or descent 
would check enterprise and industry, as no man" would 
struggle to acquire property which he could not leave to 
his surviving kindred, my reply is, that man by his own 
thrift and industry is seldom able to acquire more than a 
million dollars’ worth of property. Fortunes exceeding 
that amount are usually acquired by speculation, trickery, 


400 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


or some device by which one man takes advantage of his 
fellow-man, and which, if not illegal, is immoral; or by 
members of privileged monopolies, trusts and syndicates. 

I don’t mean to say that all great fortunes exceeding a 
million have been acquired by immoral means, but such 
as have not are the exception, and to limit the privilege of 
disposing of more than a million by devise or descent 
would not affect one in ten thousand of the people. In 
short, such limitation would tend to discourage, not 
honest enterprise and industry, but stock-jobbing, trickery 
and other questionable methods of acquiring vast fortunes. 

We have already abolished primogeniture, by which the 
eldest son, to the exclusion of all other children, inherits 
the entire landed estate of his ancestor, and no one in this 
country at this day would think of restoring that right, 
although it still obtains in England. If limitations should 
be put upon the disposition of vast estates by will or 
descent, future generations would doubtless look upon our 
present laws, which allow such estates to be perpetuated 
in certain families, with the same disfavor with which we 
now look upon the laws of primogeniture. 

Evasions of laws limiting the amount of property to be 
devised or inherited, by conveyance during life, could be 
prohibited in like manner as conveyances in fraud of 
creditors are now prohibited. 



IX. 


DIRECT LEGISLATION. 

THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM. 

(< No people can be self-governing who are denied the right to 
vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on every law by which they are to be gov- 
erned.” — Eltweed Pomeroy. 

T HE Initiative gives the people the power to compel 
the legislature to put in form all such laws as they 
may initiate or demand by a preliminary vote. 

The Referendum gives the people the power to reject or 
ratify any legislation enacted by the legislature. All legis- 
lative enactments to be referred to the people for their 
ratification by vote before they become laws. 

The Imperative Mandate gives the people the right to 
vote out of office at any time men who fail to serve the 
public or who are untrue to their pledges. 

Proportional Representation secures the representation of 
all parties in proportion to their numerical strength. 

Representative Government means government by repre- 
sentatives elected by the people, but independent of the 
people after election and empowered to ignore or overrule 
the people’s will. 

Popular Government , or democracy, means government of, 
for and by the people. It will be possible only when all 
officeholders are honest or when the people’s represent- 
atives are made subject to the people’s will by the adoption 
of the referendum. History proves that permanent popu- 
lar government without direct legislation is impossible. 
There is a radical difference between a democracy and a 

401 


402 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


representative government. Whenever a people are quali- 
fied for self-government no power on earth can prevent 
them from exercising that right. The American people 
have been too busy “ making money” to study their real 
economic needs, and the result is that irresponsible dema- 
gogues have made laws which have plunged the nation into 
almost hopeless debt, paralyzed its business and impover- 
ished most of the people. The voters have several times 
of late risen in their wrath and “ turned the rascals out,” 
but it was only to elect another set of rascals, of different 
political complexion, perhaps, but equally dishonest and 
equally irresponsible. The so-called “landslides ” in 
recent elections, while they have resulted in no real 
reform, indicate that the people have begun to think. 
Soon they will realize that they can control their own 
government only by keeping the legislation in their own 
hands — that they must not delegate their sovereignty to 
representatives or servants, by whatever name they may 
be known. It is only by means of the initiative and 
the referendum that the people can maintain their suprem- 
acy. The general adoption of this system is the next step 
in the world’s progress. 

The initiative and referendum will take the element of 
partisanship out of the settlement of economic questions, 
and this alone is sufficient reason why it should be adopted. 
Suppose the question of tariff were submitted to the people 
to vote on. Members of all parties would vote for it and 
against it, and the majority would decide. It would 
become a question of economics, not a partisan issue, and 
would be settled on its merits. The same with the free 
coinage of silver, paper money, public ownership of rail- 
roads, prohibition, and every other great question which 
the old political parties have straddled or evaded. 

But the principal advantage of the referendum is that it 


DIRECT LEGISLATION. 


403 


would do away entirely with the lobby — “ the third house.” 
There would be no inducement for any one to bribe the 
lawmakers. They might sell their individual votes, but 
these would be worthless, as only the people could 
“ deliver the goods.” The people would be quick to see 
the value of the franchises and privileges which are now 
being practically given away, to be used by corporations 
to still further enslave the masses. 

Switzerland is the home of the referendum. It is com- 
monly believed that that republic has existed for six hun- 
dred years. The fact, however, is that it is the youngest 
of republics. The characteristic features of the govern- 
ment, those which make it a republic in fact as well as in 
name, were instituted by the present generation. It is the 
only country in the world to-day which has overthrown its 
plutocracy and which has made it impossible for corrupt 
politicians to rule the people through the representative 
system. To the principle of direct legislation, as carried 
out by the initiative and referendum must be ascribed the 
happy conditions which surround its politics. Mr. W. D. 
McCrackan, author of “The Rise of the Swiss Republic,” 
who has made a special study of the subject, has published 
in the Arena his observations of Swiss politics. He finds 
that, as a result of the referendum, jobbery and extrava- 
gance are unknown, and that politics, as there is no money 
in it, has ceased to be a trade. Officeholders are taken 
from the ranks of citizenship and are invariably chosen 
because of their fitness for the work. The people take an 
intelligent interest in the legislation, local and federal, and 
are fully imbued with a sense of their political responsi- 
bilities. The Westminster Review , speaking of the referen- 
dum, expresses this opinion: 

“The bulk of the people move more slowly than their 
representatives, are more cautious in adopting new and 


4 o 4 


PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS. 


trying legislative experiments and have a tendency to 
reject propositions submitted to them for the first time. . . . 
The issue which is presented to the sovereign people is 
invariably and necessarily reduced to its simplest expres- 
sion and so placed before them as to be capable of an 
affirmative or negative answer. In practice, therefore, the 
discussion of details is left to the representative assem- 
blies, while the public express approval or disapproval of 
the general principle or policy embraced in the proposed 
measure. Public attention being confined to the issue, 
leaders are nothing. Collective wisdom judges of merits.” 

In some of the cantons of Switzerland the referendum 
has been in practice since the sixteenth century. As it is 
now employed it was adopted by the canton of St. Gallen 
in 1830, and in 1848 it was incorporated in the Swiss fed- 
eral constitution. It has been so extended since then that 
it is now in operation in all the Swiss cantons except 
Freiburg. 

According to the Swiss constitution all amendments 
thereto must be ratified by the Swiss electors before they 
become effective. Other measures, like ordinary enact- 
ments, must be submitted to a popular vote if a demand is 
made for such submission, written ninety days after their 
publication. This demand must be made by 30,000 voters 
or by the government of eight of the nineteen entire and 
six half cantons. In Switzerland the referendum has 
proved to be entirely satisfactory as a check upon hasty or 
class legislation. 

In his valuable book, “ Direct Legislation,” J. W. Sulli- 
van thus recounts what the Swiss have done by direct 
legislation : 

“They have made it easy at any time to alter their can- 
tonal or federal constitutions — that is, to change, even 
radically, the organization of society, the social contract, 
and thus to permit a peaceful revolution at the will of the 
majority. They have as well cleared from the way of 


DIRECT LEGISLATION . 


405 


majority rule every obstacle — privilege of ruler, fetter of 
ancient law, power of legislator. The)' have simplified 
the structure of government, held their officials as servants, 
rendered bureaucracy impossible, converted their repre- 
sentatives to simple committeemen, and shown the parlia- 
mentary system not essential to law-making. They have 
written their laws in language so plain that a layman may 
be judge in the highest court. They have forestalled 
monopolies, improved and reduced taxation, avoided 
incurring heavy public debts, and made a better distribu- 
tion of their land than any other European country. They 
have practically given home rule in local affairs to every 
community. They have calmed disturbing political ele- 
ments ; the press is purified, the politician disarmed, the 
civil service well regulated. Hurtful partisanship is passing 
away. Since the people as a whole will never willingly sur- 
render their sovereignty, reactionary movement is possible 
only in case the nation should go backward. But the way 
is open forward. Social ideals may be realized in act and 
institution. Even now the liberty-loving Swiss citizen can 
discern in the future a freedom in which every individual 
— independent, possessed of rights in nature’s resources 
and in command of the fruits of his toil — may, at his will, 
on the sole condition that he respect the like aim of other 
men, pursue his happiness.” 

Proportional Representation. 

The term proportional representation has come to be 
generally applied to a method of electing representatives 
whereby the representation shall be in proportion to the 
votes polled by the several parties, or groups of voters, 
as against the present method of electing them from single 
districts by a plurality vote. To effect this end numerous 
plans have been put forth. 

The cumulative vote allows the voter as many votes as 
there are representatives to be elected and permits him to 
distribute them as he pleases among the candidates. This 
method is applied in a limited degree to the choice of 
members of the lower house of the Illinois legislature. 


406 present da y problems . 

Each district elects three members, and the voter can cast 
three votes for one candidate, one and a half votes for two, 
or one vote each for three. 

With the limited or restricted vote the voter has a less 
number of votes than the number of representatives to be 
elected. Thus in the city of Boston the new law allows 
the voter to vote for only seven aldermen on one ticket, 
and declares the twelve candidates receiving the highest 
vote elected. 

The preferential , or, as it is commonly known, the Hare 
vote , allows the voter to cast one ballot upon which he has 
named as many candidates as he sees fit, the candidates 
named being understood to represent the first, second, 
third, etc., choice. The whole number of ballots cast is 
divided by the number of representatives to be chosen, 
and the quotient is the quota, or number of votes required 
to elect one candidate. In counting the ballots the first 
choices are read first ; the candidate who receives a quota 
is declared elected, and the remaining votes cast for him 
are counted for the next name on the ballot who is the 
second choice of the voter. 

The free list , or Swiss vote , allows the voter to vote for a 
list or ticket, as we do in this country, and to designate 
preferences on the list. The total vote is divided as in the 
Hare system to get the quota, and the several parties are 
apportioned representatives according to the number of 
quotas they have. The successful candidates are those 
standing highest on their respective lists. This method is 
now in use in Switzerland for the election of representatives. 

The Gove system is a modified form of the Hare method. 
Instead of the voter naming the candidates whom he pre- 
fers, the candidates themselves before election announce 
to whom they will give their surplus vote. 

The proxy vote is simply an introduction of the corpora- 


DIRECT LEGISLATION. 


407 


tion vote into legislative bodies. The candidates who are 
elected in the legislative assembly cast, not their individual 
votes, as at present, but the number of proxies they hold. 

It will be seen that there are three principles involved 
in these several methods, the election by cumulation of 
votes, the election by quotas, and the vote by proxies. 
The cumulative vote was the first to be put into actual 
service, being used in England for the election of mem- 
bers of school boards, etc., and in this country in the 
so-called three-cornered districts for the election of mem- 
bers of the legislature. It still has the support of quite a 
number of persons, but its limitations are now coming to 
be recognized. John Stuart Mill, who was an advocate of 
the cumulative vote, declared it to be merely a makeshift in 
comparison with the quota system of Hare. The objec- 
tion to the cumulative vote lies in the fact that if the dis- 
tricts are small only two parties can obtain representation, 
and these in an arbitrary way, while if the districts be 
larger, that is, if the number of representatives in the dis- 
trict be made greater, the waste and uncertainty is appar- 
ent. A party may decide to vote for four candidates when 
it has votes enough to elect six ; or it may try for six when 
it has votes for only four. In either case it is deprived of 
a part of its just share in the representation. The proxy 
system contains some theoretical merits, but it is feared 
that in practice it would not work well at present. The 
tendency to hero-worship would prompt so many voters to 
give their proxies to a few favorites that the real voting 
strength of the assembly would be in the hands of two or 
three men, thus destroying its value as a deliberative body. 

The real strength of proportional representation lies in 
some form of the quota principle, and the tendency in this 
county, as in Switzerland and Belgium, is toward the 
free list. 



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Problem, etc., etc. 1 


BOOKS OF THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING CO. 


Hon. Lyman Trumbull says of The Little Statesman: 
“I know of no other publication embodying - in the same com- 
pass so much valuable information for the student of the 
political history of this country.' ’ 

Hon. Ignatius Donnelly: “The best compendium of political 
information that I have seen.” 

Our Money Wars. 

By Samuel Leavitt. Cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 50 cents. 

This is without doubt one of the most important of recent 
publications. It is the most complete and comprehensive 
history of American finance ever published. The book is the 
result of a lifetime of study and work, and will be indispensable 
to all who wish to keep posted on the money question. 

Henry Carey Baird, of Philadelphia, a prominent citizen and 
still running the publishing house run by his grandfather and 
uncle since 1785, is generally considered by reformers the most 
accurate and reliable writer upon money reform in the world. 
He has read the work and says: “It is a source of amazement 
to me how you have gotten together so much information. It 
is just the book we have been wanting for twenty-five years, 
and should have an immense sale.” 

The Battle of the Standards. 

By Henry M. Teller and James H. Teller. Large 12mo 
Paper, 25 cents. (English or German.) 

This is, without a doubt, the book on the Silver side of the 
greatest question which is now before the American people. It 
is a masterly presentation, and answers systematically and 
effectively all the arguments of the gold standard advocates. 
“The latest and the best.” 

The Condition of the American Farmer. 

Large 12mo, 64 pages, 10 cents. 

In this compact and convincing work the author reviews the 
farmer’s income, the depreciation of farm property, increase of 
tenant farmers, decadence of home ownership, etc., and shows 
that owing to the demonetization of silver and the contraction 
of our currency the average farmer ot the United States is 
compelled to live on an income below that provided for paupers 
by public charity and receives less for his labor than the State 
of Illinois receives for the labor of convicts. 

2 


BOOKS OF THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING CO. 

George E. Bowen, Assistant Secretary American Bimetallic 
Union writes : “ Although we are handling a great many 
books, I may safely say that this one, for the farmer or country 
merchant, is the best vote-maker we have seen.” 

The Science of Legal Robbery. 

Miscalled the Science of Finance. By Percy Kinnaird. 
12mo, 150 pages. Paper, 25 cents. 

This book reviews the innovations upon the financial system 
inaugurated by the Constitutional fathers — some of them 
vicious innovations, and others unavoidable through the legacy 
of economical errors left by the financial pioneers of the infant 
republic. It shows logically and conclusively that the legal- 
tender greenback money which took the place of banished 
silver and gold money during the civil war (and of which some 
$346,000,000 are still in existence) was not a “debt,” but a privi- 
leged circulating medium, as much money as the metals which 
preceded, and not any more essentially to be redeemed in any- 
thing than gold itself. With the laborious research and close 
analysis of the trained lawyer, the author has followed the 
financial legislation of America from the Colonial fathers 
down. The subject of money is discussed in the cold, calm light 
of pure science. Congressmen, irrespective of party, may 
study its pages with profit. There is in it a world of enlighten- 
ment to our lawmakers who are unbought and conscientious. 
To the people of the United States, whether borrowers or 
lenders of money, it is instructive; to the high school lad, study- 
ing political economy and currency, it is a liberal education. 
No more timely or useful contribution to the financial literature 
of the times has yet appeared. 

Ten Men of Money Island. 

A Primer of Finance. By S. F. Norton. 12mo, 142 pages, 
enameled paper cover, 25 cents. 

Over half a million copies of this wonderful book have been 
sold. ^ 

“It gives the principles of money in the form of a story so 
interesting and in such simple language that even a child can 
read it with understanding. This is undoubtedly the simplest 
book that has ever been written on the principles of money.”— 
John B Gill, Secretary American Economic Reform Society. 

3 


BOOKS OF THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING CO. 


“No man or woman born will, after reading ‘Ten Men oi 
Money Island,’ deny that the money it cost was well invested.” 
New York World. 

The Voter’s X-Rays. 

By Clarence T. Atkinson. 12mo, 132 pages. Cloth, 75 
cents ; paper, 25 cents. 

“This book intelligently sets forth the condition of national 
affairs as they exist to-day, and its whole tendency is toward 
the instruction of the great mass of voters who have not the 
time to personally study the many intricate details of American 
politics. ” — Burlington Gazette. 

A Tramp in Society. 

By Robert H. Cowdrey. 12mo, 242 pages : paper cover, 
25 cents. 

“Thrilling and fascinating. No one who reads it can restrain 
admiration for the man who can write a story that contains 
in its warp and woof so much that is helpful and bettering to 
humanity.” — O pie Read. 

“We have had many novels of late with new economic 
schemes for a basis, but mostly advertising state socialism. At 
last we have the individualistic novel, and it ought to win wide- 
spread favor. Mr. Cowdrey has strong conviction, a good 
command of English and strong imagination.” — St. Louis 
Republic. 

An Indiana Man. 

By Le Roy Armstrong. 12mo, 218 pages Paper, 25 cents. 
“A powerful novel, charmingly written So true to the real 
life of modern politics as to seem more like history and biogra- 
phy than romance .” — Inter Ocean. 

“It bears the same relation to the fight against the saloon 
that ‘ Uncle Tom’s Cabin ’ did to the fight against slavery ” — 
John P. St. John. 

Beneath the Dome. 

By Arnold Clark. Large 12mo, 361 pages. Cloth extra, 
gilt top, stamped in black and silver, $1.25. Paper, 50c. 

“ An attractive novel, in which the best thoughts on economic 
reform are entwined with fiction, making a book that will 

4 


BOOKS OF THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING CO. 


captivate and please the reader, yet turn his thoughts to the 
great needs of humanity.”— A 7-e»<7. 

“No one can read this book without being made a better man 
or woman. ’ ’ — Progressive Farmer. 

Csesar’s Column. 

By Ignatius Donnelly. 12mo, 367 pages. Cloth, 1.25; 
paper, 50 cents. 

A story of the twentieth century and the downfall of pluto- 
cratic civilization. Thirtieth edition. 

“As an example of the highest literary form it deserves 
unstinted praise.”— Cardinal Gibbons. 

“A very extraordinary production.”— R t. Rev. Henry C. 
Potter. 

“The book is a plea, and a striking one. Its plot is bold, its 
language is forceful, and the great uprising is given with 
terrible vividness .” — Public Opinion. 

Hell Up To Date. 

The Journey of R. Palasco Drant, Newspaper Correspond- 
ent, through the Infernal Regions, as reported by him- 
self. Illustrated by Art Young. Popular edition, extra 
cloth binding, $1.00 ; paper, 50 cents. 

The Humorous Hit of the Age. 

“Fifty years ago this book would have been viewed with 
alarm by the pious community. A century ago its author 
would have been ostracised for profanity ; two centuries ago he 
would have been imprisoned as a heretic, and when Columbus 
lived he would have been burned at the stake for his risible 
attack on the old belief .” — Kansas City Star. 

Old ’Kaskia Days. 

An American Historical Novel. By Elizabeth Holbrook. 
Large 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Paper, 25 cents. 

“ A delightful picture of one of the oldest settlements west 
of the Alleghenies. There is a pleasant quaintness in the style 
of this novel, which is interesting as a story and as a record, 
and the local illustrations are important .” — Review of Reviews. 

In Sunflower Land. 

Stories of God’s Own Country. By Roswell Martin Field. 
12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25. 

“ A delightful volume. The title of the book refers to the 

5 


BOOKS OF THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING CO. 


typical flower of Missouri and Kansas, of which two States Mr. 
Field is the prose laureate ” — Chicago Tribune. 

Francis Bacon and His Secret Society. 

An Attempt to Collect and Unite the Lost Links of a Long 
and Strong Chain. By Mrs Henry Pott, editor of 
“ Bacon's Promus.” Illustrated with twenty-seven full- 
page plates Post 8vo, 421 pages, cloth extra, gilt 
top. Price, $2.00. 

“ Perhaps the most exhaustive study of Bacon and his works 
possible to any writer of the present, or, indeed, any future 
age ,” — Minneapolis Times. 

Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthro- 
pology. 

Edited by C. Staniland Wake. Illustrated. Imperial 8vo, 
deckled edges, gilt top. Price, $10 net. Edition limited, 
and only a few copies still unsold. 

“No public or private library which is designed to present to 
its readers the attainments of our age, at the highwater mark 
of its development, should be without this remarkable series of 
reports. ” — Cntic. 

“ One of the most substantial contributions to knowledge 
that have resulted from the Chicago Congresses of 1893 is this 
magnificent volume.” — Dial. 

The White Ribbon Cook Book. 

Economy and Wealth, Temperance and Health in the House- 
hold. A Collection of Original and Revised Recipes in 
Cookery and Housekeeping. Edited by Kathryn Arm- 
strong. 16mo, 275 pages, cloth extra, 75 cents. 

A first-class book, prepared by a practical housekeeper. 
While it is not claimed that it is in all respects superior to all 
other books, we do claim that any housekeeper, even if she have 
a dozen other cook books, will find this one worth to her more 
than the price, and that the author has fully carried out her 
purpose : “To prove that wine, brandy and spirituous liquors 
of any kind may be dispensed with, and that no culinary 
requirement necessitates the introduction of these poisons into 
any household.” 

Sex and Life. 

The Physiology and Hygiene of the Sexual Organization. By 
Eli F. Brown, M. S., M. D. Illustrated. 16mo, cloth 
extra, $1.00. [6] 







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